


Children of the Full Moon

by ThePrettiestOfLights



Series: The Children of the Full Moon [1]
Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Blood, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-13 21:27:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 30,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7137878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePrettiestOfLights/pseuds/ThePrettiestOfLights
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Full moons are a bad time for everyone. Werewolves turn, monsters are out in force, and children born on those nights are… strange, to say the least.<br/>The December before their 18th birthday, Children of the Full Moon are executed before their powers become fully developed.<br/>However, some of the children decide that's not how it's going to go, and make a break for it...<br/>(This is the thing that inspired Murder in Yogtowers. Enjoy my suffering.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Childhood

**Author's Note:**

> This is the replacement thing for TYOGS and will be the replacement for MIYT when it ends on Saturday!  
> Enjoy!

The village had four children born on a full moon that year. Their names were Nilesy, Lomadia, Lalna and Rythian.  
“Sir, your child keeps spraying the nurses with water.”  
“I don’t see how that’s a problem- “  
“There’s no water around. He’s shooting it out of his hands.”  
“Oh dear lord.”

* * *

 

“Your daughter keeps summoning owls.”  
“Owls?”  
“Yes Ma’am. We’re not sure how they’re getting in. They just appear out of nowhere.”  
“Oh god, why me?”

* * *

 

“Your son seems to have... escaped.”  
“Escaped? He’s a newborn, how could he have escaped?”  
“He seems to be incredibly intelligent for his age Sir. I’m sorry, we’ll try and find him.”  
“You better had.”

* * *

 

“Ma’am does anyone in your family have purple eyes?”  
“Purple eyes? Of course not! We are a perfectly ordinary family, thank you very much!”  
“Sorry Ma’am, but your child has purple eyes, and they appear to be… glowing.”  
“Purple glowing eyes? I’m sorry, I’m not taking this boy. Put him up for adoption.”  
“Ma’am, you can’t just leave your son- “  
“Can’t I? Watch me.”

* * *

 

Nilesy grew up fairly normally. Obviously there was the occasional outburst of water when he was young, but he soon learned to control it, and actually made friends with some of the other children in the village. Occasionally he would have insults thrown at him, but he didn’t really care. His childhood was okay, and he didn’t ever want to leave it.

* * *

 

Lomadia wasn’t exactly an outcast, but she wasn’t particularly popular either. The owl’s followed her everywhere, whether she asked them to or not. Of course she asked them, she could talk to them, and they were her friends. But sometimes, when she hid in her room from the people throwing rocks at her when the owls had gotten out of hand, she wished she had been born without her powers.

* * *

 

Lalna spent most of his time alone. He preferred it that way. He was exceedingly smart, and spent as much time as possible inventing. He was friends with the owl girl, but she was the only person he really spoke to. Because he spent all his time inside, the people of the village almost forgot he was a Child of the Full Moon. But when he did go outside, and try to test his inventions and experiments, the towns people would whisper about him, always saying the same word.  
“Freak.”

* * *

 

Rythian was the worst treated of the children. He couldn’t leave his home without having a volley of rocks and other hard objects aimed at his head. When one did hit him, he couldn’t help but fire back, a blast of bright purple magic smashing into the chest of whoever dared to harm him. The magic was practically harmless, but the villagers didn’t know that. They cursed at him, and his adoptive family, and all Rythian ever knew was hatred.


	2. Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A plan is formed...

  
Midnight, December 1st: Ten hours before the execution.  
The families of the Full Moons knew this. That didn’t stop them trying to delay it.  
First they burned down the gallows, a week before the execution was due.  
But the rest of the villagers built new ones in just two days.  
Secondly, they flooded the village, five days before the execution was due.  
But all the water drained into the nearby lakes and rivers, causing minimal damage and distress.  
Thirdly, the owls tried to attack the village, three days before the execution was due.  
They were slaughtered by the local militia within a matter of hours.  
The Children of the Full Moon, or ‘Full Moons’ as they were nicknamed by the villagers, met on the church roof the night before the execution, even though they had barely spoken before. Full Moons didn’t speak to other Full Moons. That was the unspoken rule.  
Lomadia arrived first. She had become an expert at climbing when she had had to hide from the rock-throwers in the woods. Trees made great hiding places, and that was were the owls lived. She was wearing all black so she wouldn’t be spotted wandering around the village in the dead of night. She had taken every precaution she could to ensure no one knew she was out here.  
Lomadia pulled a note out of her pocket, the one that had been slipped under her door that morning. It read;  
_Lomadia,_  
_Meet on the church roof at midnight._  
_We have to fight back_  
_-The Children of the Full Moon_  
She folded the note and slipped it back into her pocket. The moon rising was above the forest, and Lomadia watched its ascent until she heard something behind her. She turned around and saw Lalna clumsily climbing onto the roof. She smiled at the sight of him. He was wearing a lab coat, a purple T-shirt, grey trousers and black boots. Not as precautious as Lomadia, clearly. Lomadia was fully aware she was Lalna’s only true friend, and she supposed he was the only one she spoke to who truly understood her and her powers. Once Lalna was safely on the roof, Lomadia spoke to him.  
“Hey, Lal. You got a note too?” She asked, despite already knowing the answer.  
“Hey, Lom. Yeah, do you know who it’s from?” Lalna asked as he sat down next to her.  
“Well, there’s only six Full Moons in this village. We’re two, one of them is three years old next month, one is very ill at the moment, and the other two are going to die along with us tomorrow. I assume it’s one of the latter.” Lomadia said, trying, and failing, to remember the names of the other Full Moons in the village.  
“I’ve always found it strange how there are four Full Moons this year. Usually it’s only one, if any. What was so special about our year?” Lalna asked. Lomadia shrugged. She heard someone else climbing carefully onto the roof, and they both turned to see Nilesy. He was wearing glasses, a green tie, a yellow shirt and grey trousers.  
“Hello.” He said awkwardly. Nilesy had been in between the village children and the Full Moons, never quite fitting into either category.  
“Hi, I’m Lalna, this is Lomadia.” Lalna said. They had never been properly introduced to each other, due to Nilesy’s affiliation with the village children, and the “Full Moons don’t speak to each other” rule.  
“Hi, I’m Nilesy. It’s nice to meet you. Did you get a note too?” He held up a piece of paper, similar to the one Lomadia and Lalna had received.  
“No, we just decided to come up onto the church roof at midnight for a laugh.” Lomadia said sarcastically. Lalna snorted, and Nilesy raised an eyebrow.  
“Very funny, do you know what ‘we have to fight back’ means?” He asked, sitting down away from Lalna and Lomadia.  
“I don’t know, that’s why I bought a knife.” Lomadia held up a sharp penknife, which she was keeping in her sleeve.  
“Lom, was a knife really necessary?” Lalna asked.  
“Is wearing that bloody lab coat necessary?” Lomadia retorted.  
Lalna looked extremely offended. “It’s for science!” He exclaimed. Lomadia was about to spit out another sarcastic comment when a voice came from behind them.  
“You two will wake up the entire village with your bickering.” They all whipped around and saw Rythian, who had somehow gotten up onto the roof without any of them noticing. He was dressed in all black, similar to Lomadia, and had a scraf over his face. Nilesy nearly fell off the roof in surprise.  
_“Rythian!”_ He hissed.  
“So you do know my name, that’s a start.” Rythian said, ignoring Nilesy’s complaints. “Nice knife.” He added to Lomadia.  
“Thanks. I’m guessing it’s you who sent the notes?” Rythian shook his head. “Well- wait, what do you mean, no?” She asked.  
“I thought you sent them. It’s in your handwriting.” Rythian pointed out. Lomadia narrowed her eyes.  
“How do you know what my handwriting looks like?” She asked. Rythian just shrugged. Come to think of it, the note did look a bit like Lomadia’s handwriting.  
“Well, if none of us wrote the notes, what the hell is going on?” Nilesy asked.  
“I think I get it.” Lalna said quietly, staring at the note he’d received. “The note doesn’t tell us to meet a specific person. It just tells us to meet here. Someone else wanted us to meet up here and work out how to escape.”  
“Escape? From what?” Rythian asked as he sat down. “Wait, no, ignore that question.” He said, embarrassed.  
“But, it’s impossible to escape. Everyone’s tried, well, everything.” Nilesy said. He was right, everyone who had a Full Moon in their family had tried to prevent their fate.  
“Not everyone. The Full Moons never tried. They just… accepted their death. What if we caused a distraction, and made a break for the forest? I mean, we’re going to die if we don’t, and we might die if we do, but we’ll go out in style, right?” Lomadia suggested.  
“But, what would we do when we get out into the woods? There’s nothing out there, other than trees and animals.” Lalna said. They had been brought up to never go into the woods. Not for any particular reason, it was just off-limits. That didn’t stop Lomadia though. The forest had owls, and owls were her friends.  
“Well, it has to be better than here. I agree with Lomadia.” Rythian said.  
“Me too.” Replied Nilesy.  
“Well, I guess it’s worth a shot.” Lalna shrugged.  
“So, what sort of distraction?” Asked Nilesy. Lomadia whistled, and an owl flew down from a nearby tree.  
“Oh, I have an idea.” She smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Third chapter is out tomorrow!


	3. Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to escape...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this fic will be about 20 chapters (Yeah I know), but it may be longer or shorter, depending on how the story goes. That will take us over to July, and I have literally nothing planned for then. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, I guess!

9am, December 1st: One hour before the execution.  
The plan was set. There were backpacks filled of supplies, courtesy of Rythian, who probably stole them, hidden behind Nilesy’s house, as it was the only one between the gallows and the woods. They had the perfect plan, which only had a 75% chance of going completely and utterly wrong, according to Lalna.

* * *

 

Nilesy sat on his bedroom floor with his pet cat. Lyndon, his mother had named him. Nilesy had wanted to name Mr. Cat, but his parents had convinced him otherwise. Lyndon was pure black, and had a habit of climbing up onto cupboards and not coming down again until Nilesy grabbed him. Nilesy was aware this was the last time he would see Lyndon, even if he survived the execution. He wouldn’t be returning to his home, he couldn’t. He’d be shot on sight. And he couldn’t take Lyndon with him, it just wasn’t possible. He’d find another cat when he left. No, he’d have many cats. As many as he possibly could. He’d make himself a big house with a hundred cats, all different sizes, ages and colours. Lyndon climbed into Nilesy’s lap and purred softly.  
“Oh, Lyndon, I’m sorry I’m leaving you. You’ll be okay, mum and dad will look after you. They promised me they would. And you promise me something too, kitty. Lalna has a little sister, her name is Rosie. You look after her for me, she’ll be really sad because Lalna will be gone too. You do that for me, and you’ll be the best cat in the world.” Nilesy said. Lyndon meowed and nuzzled into his arm. He smiled. “It’ll be okay, Lyndon. It’ll all be okay.”

* * *

 

Lomadia stood in front of her mirror, looking at her reflection for what should be the last time. She told herself it wouldn’t be. She promised she’d get out of this, they all would. She had to.  
She wasn’t wearing a dress, although her mother had tried to force her to. After a lot of arguing, and a small amount of guilt-tripping, she was allowed to wear a pair of brown leggings, a blue t-shirt, black boots and her owl hat. Her 10th birthday present. Perfect for running, was her thought process. She went over the plan in her head for the millionth time that morning. Distraction, backpacks, run for it. It was simple, but it could go wrong in a second.  
“Lomadia, darling, are you ready?” Her dad poked his head around the door, and smiled.  
“Yeah, I guess.” She sighed, adjusting her hat. Her dad stepped into the room and held his arms out, indicating a hug. Lomadia accepted.  
“It’ll be alright, Lom. I promise you, it’ll be fine.” He said, his words empty, his promise unfillable. As far as he knew, he was losing his only child because of something he couldn’t control. Lomadia made a sound that was probably taken as indifference, and pulled away from the hug. Her dad patted her head gently. “We’re leaving in ten minutes, okay?” He asked. Lomadia nodded, and her dad left. Lomadia looked back at the mirror. She’d never notice how long her hair was before now, or how short she really was. She sighed. She promised herself she’d cut her hair when she found somewhere nice to settle down. She’d get a tree house, not a little wooden one like the ones the village children had, no. A proper big one in the biggest tree she could get her hands on. She’d have plenty of room for her owls, and she might even get a small cat. If she got out- no, _when_ she got out of here, she’d do whatever she wanted to.

* * *

 

Lalna wasn’t wearing his lab coat today. He had one in his backpack, but he didn’t want to wear it while he was running. It would get in his way. He was sitting on his bed, flipping through his old picture book for the last time. He heard his door open, and turned around to see his sister Rosie standing in the doorway.  
“Hey, Rosie. You okay?” He asked.  
“Uh, yeah. Can I… talk to you… about something?” She asked, moving to sit on his bed with him.  
“Of course you can. What’s up?” He closed his picture book and smiled sadly at her.  
“You know… today. Are you sure you can’t get out of it? You can’t… I don’t know, do something about it?” Rosie asked. Lalna sighed. He couldn’t tell Rosie their plan. It wasn’t because he didn’t trust her, but because it may not work. He couldn’t give her false hope.  
“Rosie, if I could, I would have already, I promise you.” He said.  
“But… but… it’s not fair, why did you have to be a Full Moon? It’s not fair, it’s not _fair_!” Rosie started sobbing, and Lalna pulled her into a hug.  
“Don’t cry, it’s okay. I promise you, I’ll do everything I can. Don’t worry, doll, don’t worry.” He whispered, almost believing it himself.  
He promised himself he would come back for Rosie some day. He’d come back and take her away to wherever he ended up. They’d have a house in a different village where they didn’t believe in all this ‘Full Moon’ crap, where Lalna could invent stuff and Rosie could sing as much as she liked.  
Everything could be okay.  
No, everything _would_ be okay.

* * *

Rythian sat on the roof of the church for the second time that morning. He wasn’t bothered about saying goodbye to his family. He wasn’t overly attached to any of them anyway. He was more interested in what could be out in the forest. Trees, obviously, but there had to be somewhere where he didn’t have to hide his powers. Where he didn’t have rocks thrown at him whenever he went outside. Where he didn’t have to blast a person with magic every time they did.  
He’d have a mage tower. A big one, where he could do magic. He wouldn’t have to talk to anyone if he didn’t want to. He wouldn’t have to deal with people at all. It would be perfect.  
No, he had to get out of the village first. Then he had to find somewhere to build the tower. Then he had to build it. And he needed to not die in between.  
He wasn’t an optimist, not by a long shot. But he had a feeling that everyone would be okay, at least for a short while.  
This time, _nothing_ would go wrong.

* * *

9:58am, December 1st. Two minutes before the execution.  
They were all in handcuffs. Well, not handcuffs, exactly, but their hands were bound in ropes. Easy to cut, Lomadia thought. She had her knife hidden up her sleeve, and she could grab it without moving her hands too much. Her plan was to cut her ties, maybe stab a few people who got in her way, release the others, and run for their lives. The owls were to distract the crowd while she did it.  
As she was cutting her ties as discretely as she could, she whistled, and the crowd was dive-bombed by a Parliament of owls. Everyone screamed, and tried to run back to their houses. The owls pecked at them as Lomadia released herself and started working on Nilesy’s ropes. Once he was free, he released a tidal wave of water onto the crowd, making them panic further. The owls flew up out of the way before continuing their attack, and the crowd screamed in terror. Lomadia started on Lalna’s binds, as Rythian had already managed to release himself somehow, and was blasting the nearby guards. She was nearly through Lalna’s bindings, when someone jumped on her, knocking her knife out of her hand.  
Lomadia didn’t even see who it was. She just screamed and grasped at where she thought her knife was. The person raised something in their hand, a knife, or a rock, or maybe a sports bat, when they were pushed off her. Lomadia looked up, expecting to see Nilesy, or Rythian, or Lalna if he’d managed to get out of his binds. But it wasn’t any of them.  
It was Rosie Jones. And she had Lomadia’s knife.  
She stabbed down into the person’s stomach. Lomadia realised it was one of the village children, the one who always threw rocks at the Full Moon’s, no matter what time of day it was. Rosie stood back, looked over at Lomadia, and threw her knife back to her. Lomadia caught it, and with a fire in her eyes, Rosie said,  
“Run, and take care of him for me.” Before disappearing off into the crowd, who were still screaming and panicking. Lomadia turned back and saw Rythian had knocked out all the guards, Nilesy had drenched the crowd, the owls had retreated, and Lalna was watching Rosie with wide eyes.  
“We have to go, _now_!” Rythian yelled, before sprinting off in the direction of Nilesy’s house and the backpacks. Nilesy took one look at the crowd before taking off after him. Lomadia grabbed Lalna’s arm and tried to drag him away from the crowd. Lalna tried to resist, so Lomadia resorting to yelling at him until he listened.  
“Lalna, we have to leave, right this minute!” She shouted, still trying to pull him away.  
“But, what about Rosie?” He asked frantically, still trying to pull away.  
“Forget about her, she’ll be fine. If we don’t leave, they’ll kill us both. Now _GO_!” She yelled, tugging him one last time. Lalna stopped resisting, and they both sprinted towards their backpacks and the forest.


	4. Forest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Full Moons try to figure out what on earth to do next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, I know Nilesy's birthday is May 5th. But, for consistency, I had to change it to June 28th. If I didn't, the story wouldn't make sense.  
> Consistency is important in writing, friends.

No one followed them into the forest, other than a few owls, who then scouted ahead at Lomadia’s command. They set up camp after a few hours of walking, intending to break for lunch. They didn’t have tents, Rythian hadn’t been able to acquire any, just sleeping mats. They set them up around a campfire so they could sit down. Nilesy and Lalna went out into the forest to get more fire wood, and Lomadia and Rythian stayed by the campfire with their packs and cooked themselves some food. A few owls were hanging around, and Lomadia whistled a large snowy owl down from the trees. They sat on her shoulder and nibbled at her ear gently. Lomadia laughed, and Rythian smiled.  
“This one’s called Hedwig. She’s one of the smartest ones.” She said. They were sitting on opposite sides of the campfire.  
“Have you always been able to do that? With the owls, I mean.” He asked.  
“As long as I can remember, yeah. My mum always tells people the story of how a nurse came into her room to tell her owls kept appearing in my room when they weren’t looking. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I always found it funny.” She said, stroking the owl’s head.  
“That’s cool. I don’t really have any stories like that.” Rythian said, his smile fading.  
“Really? Why not?” Lomadia asked as Hedwig flew off into the trees.  
“I- um- my parents… abandoned me, when I was a baby, because of my eyes. Literally, they ditched me because I have purple eyes. And the Full Moon thing too, probably. The people I live with adopted me, and tried their best to raise me. I was a… difficult child.” Said Rythian. He’d never told anyone this before, but he felt Hannah might be able to understand him. Sure, her parents loved her, and no one noticed her power at a glance, but she was a Child of the Full Moon. She was practically his sister.  
“Man, that’s awful. At least your power is cool, mine is just… owls.” Lomadia whistled again, and a barn owl swooped over their heads.  
“Cool? No offence, Lomadia, but you didn’t have rocks thrown at your head every time you went outside for seventeen years.” Rythian said, feeling spiteful despite knowing she didn’t mean it that way.  
“Oh… I- I’m sorry.” Lomadia bowed her head slightly.  
“It’s okay, you didn’t mean it. It is sort of cool, being able to teleport.” Rythian said, poking the fire with a stick he’d found while they were walking.  
“You can teleport? Is that how you got onto the church roof without me hearing you?” Lomadia asked excitedly. “Because I have really good hearing. I think it’s the owl thing.”  
“Yeah. Why climb, when you can not climb, right?” Rythian said, and Lomadia laughed. Nilesy and Lalna came back with some fire wood, and they all sat down to eat.  
“So, who’s the oldest out of all of us?” Nilesy asked after a while of silent eating.  
“Uh, I’m not sure. I’ve never really thought about it. My birthday is on the 1st of March. What’s yours?” Asked Lalna.  
“Mine is June 28th.” Nilesy said.  
“I was born on the 25th of May. Rythian?” Lomadia asked as she fed one of the owls some of her meat.  
“I- I don’t actually know. I know it’s sometime in April, but I don’t know the exact date. I’ve never really bothered with birthdays anyway.” Rythian shrugged.  
“April 23rd.” Lalna said, not looking up from his food.  
“What?” Lomadia and Rythian said in unison. Nilesy said nothing, just looked confused.  
“Your birthday. It’s April 23rd. That’s when the full moon was that month, as far as I know.” Lalna said, like it was common knowledge.  
“Oh, okay then.” Rythian said.  
“So, that makes Nilesy the youngest, then me, then Rythian, and Lalna is the oldest.” Lomadia said, and everyone nodded. They continued to eat in silence, before packing up and continuing on their walk. The owls swooped over their heads, despite the fact it was gone midday, and they should be asleep. They walked for a while longer, occasionally taking breaks to eat and rest, talking about themselves, the village, their families, what they knew about their powers, etc.  
Nilesy was an only child, like a lot of the children in the village. He’d had the best childhood of them all, somehow managing to control his power and fit in with the village children. He’d had a cat, named Lyndon, who followed him everywhere he could, and was always there to make him feel better. His powers were water based, he knew that much. He could shoot water from his hands, and he could breath for longer than most underwater. Rythian suggested he might be able to talk to aquatic animals, but Nilesy shrugged. He’d never tried.  
Lomadia was also an only child. Her childhood had been reasonable enough, though she had never had many friends, Lalna was probably the only consistent one, and had to deal with the rock-throwers from time to time. She’d had a pet rat, though she hadn’t specified the name, who had found their way into her house one day. She’d convinced her parents to let her keep them in a cage in her room, as her 15th birthday present. She described her powers as ‘owls and stuff’. She could talk to them, order them to do things, although they didn’t always listen, and she could understand what they were saying. She had good night vision and hearing, just like owls did. That was the extent of her powers, as far as she knew. Nilesy joked that she might become an owl on her 18th birthday. Lomadia glared at him.  
Unlike the others, Lalna had a younger sister. Her name was Rosie, but they all knew that. She was a happy, popular fifteen-year-old girl, who had always thought the Full Moons weren’t a curse, but a blessing. His only friend had been Lomadia, but he rarely had to deal with the rock-throwers. He hardly ever went outside, and when he did, it was at night-time, so he could test his experiments and inventions. His power was his intelligence, his ability to solve problems quickly and efficiently, and to create amazing things out of whatever he had. When Lomadia insisted that his intelligence wasn’t technically a power, he worked out how long it would take her to climb a nearby tree based entirely off of her height. He was right, of course, so Lomadia went quiet.  
Rythian told them very little about himself. He told them he was adopted, he didn’t have any siblings, he rarely went outside due to the rock-throwers, he could teleport, and he had a spell which could knock people out in one blow. When Lalna said his power wasn’t very good, Rythian teleported right in front of him and offered to test it out on his face. Lalna declined, and they carried on walking.  
When it started to get dark, they found a small clearing and set up camp. They ate, and tried to come up with a reasonable plan.  
“We walk until we get out of this forest. It has to end eventually, and then we might find a village, or other people who can help us.” Nilesy suggested.  
“But, which way do we walk?” Asked Lomadia.  
“Preferably not the way we came.” Replied Rythian.  
“Well, yes, obviously not _that_ way.” Nilesy muttered.  
“Well, what if Lomadia climbed up into a tree and looked around. She might be able to see something useful.” Said Lalna, and Lomadia nodded.  
“Yeah, I can do that.” She stood up and looked around for a tall, sturdy tree to climb. There was one not far from the edge of the clearing. She got Rythian to give her a boast, and she climbed to the top easily, only slipping when a branch snapped beneath her foot and crashed to the ground. She recovered quickly. She tried her best to not look down, because she wasn’t fantastic with heights. When she got to the top, she scanned over the forest and tried to figure out which would be the best way to walk. She ruled out the way they came, south, almost straight away. No good would come of going anywhere near their old village. To the north and east, the trees got thicker and darker as the forest got deeper. Going those ways wouldn’t get them out of the forest, and it would probably get them into danger. To the west, the trees got much thinner, and Lomadia was sure she could see flat land just past the forest. Although it was getting dark, Lomadia could see almost perfectly. The perks of her powers, she supposed, although they were certainly getting sharper. West was definitely the best way to go. Lomadia climbed down carefully and informed the others of her findings. They decided they would set out in the morning, at the crack of dawn. They all settled down to sleep under the stars, the fire still roaring thanks to Lalna figuring out how to make it last longer. They all felt reasonably safe, as Lomadia had put some larger owls on guard duty. Rythian was the wariest, as he had always believed nothing was ever truly safe. Despite this, he fell asleep easily, tired from walking for the whole day.


	5. West

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group start heading west, but have a run in with some new people...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this one is rather long (By my standards)!  
> Enjoy!

When they woke up, they ate, packed up and headed west. A group of owls scouted ahead, and for a few hours, nothing of note happened, other than Nilesy tripping over some tree roots. After three hours of walking, one of the owls flew straight at them, and started hooting wildly at Lomadia.  
“Whoa, whoa, calm down Athena. Slow down, I can’t understand a word you’re saying.” Lomadia said as the owl continued to hoot frantically.  
“I don’t think any of us can.” Whispered Nilesy. Rythian sniggered, but Lalna elbowed them both in the ribs. Athena hooted again, a little more calmly.  
“Athena says there’s an abandoned camp not far in front of us. She says there’s no one there, but her and the other owls have a bad feeling about it.” Lomadia whistled, and Athena flew back up into the trees.  
“Should we check it out?” Asked Lalna.  
“I don’t know. If the owls think it’s unsafe, maybe we should listen to them.” Rythian said, sitting down on a fallen log.  
“Ah yes, let’s trust some birds, who only one of us can understand. Completely fool proof, nothing could possibly go wrong.” Said Nilesy. Rythian shot a blast of harmless magic at Nilesy’s feet with one hand, and he yelped and fell back in surprise. Lomadia and Lalna could barely stop themselves from laughing.  
“I think we should check it out. Athena said it was abandoned, right?” Lalna asked. Lomadia nodded. “Well, I think it’s worth a shot. They might have left some food or something.”  
“I don’t trust it, but if you all think it’s a good idea, we’ll go.” Rythian said. Everyone else nodded, and they quietly crept towards the camp.  
The camp was small, it had two tents, one larger then the other, a small campfire, and three small logs that looked like they’d been used as benches. The camp looked like it had been left in a hurry. There were no backpacks or food around, but the tents had been left, and the campfire looked as though it had been stamped out haphazardly. Lomadia and Lalna went to search around the edge of the camp, Rythian went to search the smaller tent, and Nilesy ducked inside the bigger one.  
Two sleeping bags were laid out next to each other in the tent. The only other thing there was a piece of paper, the edges were badly torn, and it was heavily creased, but it was obvious what it was.  
It was a drawing of a girl, with brown hair, blue eyes, and a rainbow headband. Underneath, in elegant handwriting, was written ‘ _Saberial_ ’.  
Suddenly, a shout came from outside the tent. It sounded female, but not like Lomadia. Nilesy ran out, a knife he’d had in his pack in one hand, the drawing in the other.  
“What the _hell_ are you doing in our camp?” Shouted a short, mixed race girl with black hair. She was wearing a red Kimono, white leggings, and black pumps. Half of her face and her arms were purple, and she was holding a thin purple sword out towards Lalna. Everyone had dropped their packs by the old campfire.  
“This is _your_ camp? I’m sorry, it looked abandoned. We’ll leave if you want us too.” Lalna said calmly, his hands held up in surrender. He was trying to back away from the purple girl, but she kept advancing.  
“That’d be a great idea.” Said a girl, who looked exactly like the one in the drawing, standing just behind the purple girl. She was aiming a bow and arrow at Rythian’s head.  
“Hey, maybe we can help these people. They look lost, and we always need more people back at Main Camp.” A red-headed girl next to them suggested. Unlike the other two, she wasn’t holding any weapons.  
“Help them? Zo, I love you, but that’s the worst idea I have heard since any idea Parvis has had.” The girl with the rainbow headband said, drawing her bowstring back some more.  
“I agree, they could be with the hunters who murdered Zylus and Ravs.” The purple girl said.  
“Who the fuck are the ‘hunters’? And who the fuck are you.” Rythian asked from the entrance of the smaller tent. The girls seemed wary, but the red-head spoke up.  
“My name is Zoeya, but you can call me Zoey. This my girlfriend, Saberial, and our friend Nano.” She indicated first to the girl with the bow, then to the purple girl.  
“Hi, I’m Nilesy. I think this is yours?” Nilesy slowly approached the girls with the drawing in front of him. Nano took it from him quickly and handed it to Zoey, who smiled. “I found it in the tent over there.”  
“Thanks, I knew I’d left it somewhere.” Zoey folded it and tucked it into her trouser pocket.  
“My name is Lomadia. That one is Rythian, the one you’re not _quite_ cutting open is Lalna. They’re harmless, probably.” Lomadia had dropped her knife by her feet. Saberial lowered her bow, but Nano kept her sword up. She seemed less wary of the strangers, though.  
“Well then, Lomadia. What are you doing so far out into the forest?” She asked.  
“Uh, do you know what the Children of the Full Moon are?” Lomadia asked.  
“Yeah, we have a bunch of them back at the Main Camp.” Saberial said.  
“Well, we’re Full Moons. Our village wanted to execute us, before we turned eighteen, so we ran away. That was yesterday. We’ve been walking through the forest ever since, trying to find somewhere to stay that’s far away from our old village.” Lomadia finished.  
Nano sighed, sheaved her sword, and turned to Saberial and Zoeya.  
“We have to take them in. If the hunters find them, they will kill them on sight. We can’t be held responsible for the death of four Full Moons, not after what happened to Ravs and Zylus.” She said, and turned back to the others.  
“We have a big camp a bit further west. We can take you there, and Xephos and Honeydew can decide what to do with you.” Nano said. “As long as it’s okay with you, of course.”  
“Uh, can we discuss it for a minute?” Nilesy asked. He beckoned the others over. “Guys, what do we do?” He whispered.  
“I think we should go. I mean, they said there were hunters out here, and I’d rather go with these people than be ambushed by them.” Lalna whispered. He had a point.  
“What, you trust the people who had a bow and arrow aimed at my head not five minutes ago? I say we get as far away from them as possible.” Rythian said quietly, folding his arms.  
“Just because you have trust issues, it doesn’t mean everyone is out to kill us.” Lalna hissed. Rythian clenched his fist and glared at Lalna with a murderous rage.  
“Lalna…” Lomadia warned. “Well, if it means anything to any of you lot, I’m going with them. You lot can stay, or go, or whatever the hell you want to do. I think it will be safer to be with a bigger group, especially if there are hunters around.”  
“I agree with Lom.” Lalna said.  
“Me too. Rythian? Are you staying here, or coming with us?” Nilesy asked. Rythian glared at Lalna for a few more seconds before sighing and running a hand through his hair.  
“Yeah, sure. But if I get murdered, I will haunt you for the rest of your lives, that is a promise.” Rythian said, and they all turned back to Nano, Zoey and Saberial.  
“We’ll come with you, all of us.” Lomadia said, picking up her knife and tucking it in her belt.  
“Okay, cool. It’s a few hours west of here, but we’ll have to pack up the tents first.” Zoey said. Her and Saberial started packing up the tents while the rest kept watch. Lalna and Nilesy paired up, so did Lomadia and Nano, but Rythian insisted he’d be fine on his own.  
“So, this camp of yours, how many people do you have there?” Lomadia asked.  
“Only about… thirty? We did have a few more, but some hunters killed them.” Nano said.  
“Oh, That’s… that’s bad. What sort of people are at the camp? Is it only Full Moons?” Lomadia had ordered some owls to keep look out, especially where Rythian was keeping look out, but to stay out of sight of Nano, Zoeya and Saberial, just in case they got suspicious of something that wasn’t happening.  
“We do have a few Full Moons, but our camp is mainly for outcasts who have nowhere else to go, which I guess includes Full Moons. We have people with curses on them, people who have been exiled for whatever reason, we have a couple of animal hybrids, we even have a werewolf.” Nano’s thin purple sword was glinting in the sunlight, as was her skin.  
“A werewolf? But, isn’t that… dangerous?” Lomadia asked, concerned. She’d been told stories of werewolves when she was little, that they were evil and not to be trusted.  
“No, of course not. Every full moon, he goes out into the woods, and he comes back when he’s stopped ripping animals to shreds. If he doesn’t come back, we send out a search party. We usually don’t have to do that, luckily.” Nano poked at a berry bush with her sword.  
“Don’t eat those, they’re deadly poisonous.” Lomadia commented casually.  
“How do you know?” Nano stopped poking the bush and stared at her.  
Lomadia shrugged. “There’s a few of those bushes on the edge of our village. Every time we try to remove them, they grow back twice as quick as the last time. Our ancestors tried to eat them and died a slow and painful death. To summarise, don’t eat them.”  
“Oh, right. So, if you’re a Full Moon, what are your powers?” Nano asked.  
Lomadia whistled one of the smaller owls down from the trees. He flew around Nano’s head once before settling on Lomadia’s shoulder and hooting.  
“I can control owls. Well, not control them, exactly, but speak to them and understand what they’re saying back. I have good night vision, and good hearing too. This one is called Hoot. He’s one of the first ones that stayed with me.” Lomadia whistled again, and Hoot flew back into the trees.  
“Wow, that’s pretty cool.” Nano said as she watched Hoot fly around and land on a branch.  
“What about you? Why are you at the camp?” Lomadia asked.  
“What, other than being half purple?” Nano indicated to her face and arms. “I was infected by the taint, and, although I’m not dangerous, people wouldn’t accept me anywhere I went. Xephos and Honeydew found me out in the woods one day, and accepted me into the group almost immediately. I only joined the group a few months ago, but I know nearly everyone there now. They’re all good people, you’ll like them, and they’ll like you, I’m sure of it.” Nano smiled warmly, and Lomadia couldn’t help but return it.  
“Nano? Nano, where are you? We’re packed up and ready to leave now!” Yelled Saberial from somewhere in the camp. They both walked back to the clearing, and everyone else was already there. They started walking west, towards the bigger camp. Nilesy walked with Saberial, Zoeya chatted with Lalna, Lomadia strolled along with Nano, and Rythian trailed behind on his own.  
“So, do all Full Moons have powers? When do they start happening?” Saberial asked excitedly. She had her bow held loosely in her left hand, and a quiver of arrows slung over her shoulder.  
“Well, one of the first things I did when I was born was spray the nurses with water I’d summoned out of my hands. I realised I could breath underwater for longer than normal when I was about four, after I fell into a lake and didn’t drown. As I got older, my powers improved, and I stopped spraying people with water accidentally.” Nilesy said.  
“That’s so cool. I don’t have cool powers or anything like that. I’m just me” She said sadly.  
“Trust me, they’re not as fun to have as they are to watch.” He said. “So, do you have a shorter version of your name? Like a nick name? Because Saberial takes far too long to say.” Nilesy asked casually, and Saberial shrugged.  
“Uh, no, I’ve always just been Saberial. You could make me a nickname if you like.” She said with another shrug.  
“Okay, how about… Saber? Like Saber-tooth tiger?” Asked Nilesy. Saberial nodded with a smile. “Alright then, Saber, how long have you been at the camp?”  
“Me and Zoey have been living there for nearly a year. It doesn’t feel like it, though. It feels like we’ve been living there all of our lives.” She said.  
“So, how old are you exactly? Because I’m seventeen, and you don’t look much older than us. You don’t mind me asking, do you?” Nilesy added quickly.  
“No, it’s okay. I’m nineteen, twenty in a few months. It’s weird to think it’s nearly four years since we ran away from home.” Saberial said, her smile fading at the thought.  
“You ran away from home at sixteen? Why? What happened that meant you had to leave?” He asked, not realising how invasive he sounded until he’d finished speaking.  
“I… don’t like to talk about it much. Zoey might, if you ask her when we get to the camp, but I don’t really want to…” She trailed off.  
“It’s okay, I’m sorry I asked.” Nilesy said, quickly changing the subject back to the camp.  
An hour later, they emerged out of the forest. Zoeya pointed to a large hill in the distance.  
“That’s where camp is, just over that hill. It should be an hour or so to get there.” She said.  
“Are you trying to tell me we’re going to climb up that massive fucking hill? Can we at least take a break first? I’m tired.” Rythian said, folding his arms.  
“Yeah, lets take a break.” Lomadia said. Lalna and Nilesy nodded in agreement.  
“We don’t have time. Main Camp expected us back two hours ago, and if we’re gone for any longer, they’ll get worried.” Nano said.  
“Oh come _on_ Nano. We can’t walk for any longer, can we babe?” Zoeya said, rubbing her foot for effect.  
“No, we need to get back soon. Tee will get upset if we’re gone for too long.” Saberial said sternly.  
“Ugh, _fine_ , we’ll carry on. But you owe me, like, half your food tonight.” Zoeya said, and they carried on walking, ignoring how much Rythian and Nilesy were complaining. They eventually got to the top of the hill, and before them was a villages worth of tents.  
“Welcome,” Said Nano. “To the Outsiders Camp.”


	6. Camp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Full Moons are shown around the camp, and meet it's founder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to unforeseen events, I had to take a break from writing.  
> I'm (probably) back now though!

They walked to the base of the hill, and Nano led them towards one of the larger tents, which was more like a marquee. It was green, as were most of the other tents around it. Zoeya and Saberial left at this point, saying they had to find a guy named ‘Tee’. They both walked off in the direction of some of the smaller tents, and Nano, Lomadia, Nilesy, Lalna and Rythian entered the marquee.  
Inside was a campfire, the smoke from which was rising up through a small opening in the roof. There were log benches around it. Past the campfire were two men, one very short, and one rather tall. They appeared to be arguing about something, but stopped when everyone entered the marquee.  
“Nano, you’re back! And you’ve brought… people.” The short one said, trying to hide the excitement in his voice, although he didn’t succeed. He was quite large for his size, and he had a Viking-like helmet perched on his ginger hair. The tall one remained silent, his blue eyes scanning the strangers suspiciously.  
“Oh, yes, right. Lomadia, Lalna, Nilesy and Rythian, this is Xephos and Honeydew, the founders of this camp. We found them out in the woods, they’re Full Moons.” Lomadia waved. Xephos nodded with indifference, and Honeydew smiled. “No sign of the hunters, I’m glad to report. No sign of Panda or Toby, either, which is worrying.”  
“Worrying indeed. Nano, who’s idea was it to bring four strangers from the woods into the camp while we are on high alert? For all we know, they could be with the hunters.” Xephos folded his arms. “Do you have any proof they are Full Moons?”  
“Well, it was Zoey’s idea, and, um…” She trailed off.  
Nilesy held his arm out towards Rythian, and released a small wave of water onto him. Rythian yelped in surprise and anger before shooting a blast of magic in Nilesy’s general direction. It missed and hit the ground near the campfire, leaving a small hole.  
“Proof enough for ya?” Nilesy asked.  
Rythian glared at him angrily. “What the _hell_ Nilesy?” Nilesy just shrugged.  
Lomadia sighed. “Do you see what I have to deal with?” She whistled, and Athena flew into the tent and sat on one of the logs in front of Honeydew. “Who’s Martyn?” Lomadia asked.  
“What?” Asked Honeydew, clearly startled at the mention of that name.  
“Martyn. You were talking about him before we walked in. You were saying he might have gone after Toby.” Lomadia looked between their shocked faces.  
“Uh, he’s one of the members of the camp. He’s disappeared since Nano, Saberial and Zoeya left this morning.” Honeydew said nervously. “How did you…”  
“My hearing is better than the average human. So is my eyesight.” Lomadia whistled, and Athena flew out again.  
“If you’re eyesight was as good as you say it is, Lom, you’d have noticed it by now.” Lalna said, trying not to laugh at Rythian, who was trying to get some of the water out of his clothes. Rythian glared at him.  
“Noticed what?” Lomadia folded her arms and narrowed her eyes.  
“Xephos isn’t human.” He said.  
“Excuse me?” She unfolded her arms and stared at him.  
“Well, technically, neither is Honeydew. He’s a dwarf. But Xephos isn’t even from this planet, as far as I can tell.” Lalna said.  
“Lalna, that’s really rude.” Nilesy said, not quite as shocked as Lomadia. He was sure there was something not quite right with Xephos, but it was a bit extreme to call him an alien.  
“No, no, he’s right. I’m not of this planet. How did you know? People usually don’t notice unless I tell them.” Xephos asked, impressed.  
“You’re seven feet tall. Humans rarely reach that height, especially in this area. An elf would, but you certainly aren’t one. Your skin and ears gave that away. You look human, and you act human, but you’re definitely just acting. The way you stand, talk, how you fold your arms, it isn’t natural to you, but you’ve been here for so long it might as well be.” Lalna shrugged. Everyone stared at him. “Also, you have a badge on your jacket that says ‘Space Ranger’. Gives it away a bit.”  
“Well that wasn’t at all weird or concerning. Remind me to never look you in the eyes for too long, you might read my mind.” Rythian gave up on trying to dry his clothes. Nano laughed.  
“They’re going to stay here, seeing as they can’t go back to their village. They might be able to help us eradicate the hunters, or at least stall them.” She said. “You don’t have a choice in that matter, before you object.” She added before leaving the marquee. Lalna raised an eyebrow before leaving as well, the other three just behind him.  
They followed Nano in the opposite direction of the one Zoeya and Saberial had gone in. They passed some people, few of them paying attention to the newcomers, and those who did gave friendly smiles and greetings to Nano. Nano stopped outside three seemingly empty tents.  
“We have these three tents here, and another one closer to my tent. You can stay in them until either Panda, Martyn and Toby come back, or you get your own tent.” She said.  
“I’ll take the tent closer to Nano. I’ll come back in about an hour, okay?” Lomadia said, and Nilesy nodded.  
“Alright, we’ll see you later.” Lalna hugged her and immediately started arguing with Nilesy over who got the blue tent and who would be stuck with the bright green one. Rythian had already crawled into a brown one. Nano and Lomadia rolled their eyes before walking back in the direction of the marquee silently. They’d just passed the marquee when a brown haired boy in a blood-stained t-shirt ran up to and fell into pace with them.  
“If anyone asks, you haven’t seen me. Not that anyone will ask, but just in case they do, I was never here, and you didn’t see me anywhere else either.” He said. He then noticed Lomadia. “Hey, who are you?”  
“I’m Lomadia, nice to meet you.” She said.  
Nano sighed. “What have you done this time? And how angry is Strife, I need to talk to him.” She asked. “This is Parvis, he’s a blood mage. He’s also incompetent and slightly annoying.”  
“Excuse me, I am not incompetent or annoying. I am a blood mage, though. And I haven’t done anything, at least, not on purpose this time. Strife isn’t that angry though- “  
“ _PARVIS_!” Someone yelled angrily from behind them.  
“Famous last words.” Lomadia commented. Nano laughed.  
“Okay, I’m outta here. Remember, you didn’t see me, and Lomadia doesn’t even know who I am.” Parvis sprinted off.  
Nano sighed again. “One of these days, Strife will actually murder him, if Parvis doesn’t get them both killed first.” She said, shaking her head.  
“You mean this happens often?” Lomadia asked.  
“More than you know.” Nano replied. They got to their tents, a small purple one and a slightly larger sky blue one. Lomadia had just put her backpack in the sky blue tent when Nano groaned.  
“Oh god, anyone but those three.” She whispered, turning to face Lomadia. “This is going to be fun.”  
“Good day ladies!” Said a tall man with green skin, red eyes and a suit, approaching them for further off into the camp. He was followed by a shorter man with a beard and a suit, and a walrus in a lab coat.  
“What do you idiots want?” Nano folded her arms and glared at them, but she was a lot shorter than them, even the walrus.  
“We just wanted to meet the new camper, is that a crime?” Asked the bearded man.  
“When you’re involved, probably. If you must know, this is Lomadia. Lomadia, this is Smith,” She indicated the green man. “Ross,” She pointed to the bearded man. “And Trott.” She gestured towards the walrus.  
“Hello, Lomadia, we are Hat Films. What is yours, is ours.” Trott said with a mock bow.  
“You’re a talking walrus.” Lomadia said quietly. “And you’re green.”  
“Really? I never noticed.” Smith said sarcastically. “I’m cursed; you don’t have to be so rude about it.”  
“Ross is the werewolf I was telling you about earlier.” Nano said. Lomadia eyed him suspiciously.  
“Don’t worry, I probably won’t rip your throat.” Ross smiled. “Unless you’re rude to me, that is.”  
“Alright, can you guys get lost now? We have things to do, people to see, and hunters to stab.” Nano waved her hand in the general direction of the forest. The Hats suddenly became very serious.  
“Do you think the forest is dangerous? Because the full moon is next week, and we don’t want Ross out in the forest with a bunch of hunters dead-set on killing him.” Smith said.  
“From what I’ve heard about werewolves, Ross will eat them alive before they get a chance.” Lomadia said, thinking of the stories her dad told her to stop her going into forests at night.  
“Unless they have silver weapons.” Trott pointed out. “Hopefully they don’t, but they might, and if they do, it’s bad.”  
Nano shrugged. “I’d talk to Xephos and Honeydew about it first, but you should be fine. I wouldn’t worry about it too much; the hunters aren’t the smartest group we’ve come up against.”  
“They were smart enough to kill Ravs.” Smith said sadly.  
“And Zylus.” Trott added. Silence followed.  
“Well, we’ll see you later, Lomadia, Quim.” Ross said, and they walked off quickly.  
Nano waited until they were out of earshot before breathing a sigh of relief. “Thank god they’re gone. I can’t put up with them for more than five minutes at a time.”  
“I thought they were alright.” Lomadia said, and Nano let out a short laugh.  
“Yeah, if you’d known them for as long as I have, you would think differently. Should we go back to Nilesy, Lalna and Rythian now?” She asked, and Lomadia nodded. As they walked back, Nano chatted about some of the people in the camp, but Lomadia tuned her out. Not because she wasn’t interested. She was thinking about her parents, and the village she’d left behind. Would they be looking for her? Yes, of course they would. They would be searching high and low for all four of them, for whatever reason.  
Maybe some of the villagers had joined the hunters. Maybe they were looking for them right now, and planned to kill her and everyone else here.  
No, there was no point thinking like that. It wouldn’t do anyone any good.  
Lomadia was snapped out of her train of thought when she bumped into Saberial. Literally, she crashed straight into her, nearly knocking herself to the ground.  
“Hey- Oh, sorry Lomadia! I didn’t see you.” Saberial grabbed Lomadia’s arm to stop her from falling over onto one of the tents.  
“No, it’s okay, I wasn’t looking where I was going.” Lomadia stabilised herself and noticed Zoeya was there as well. Behind her, was a human-sized green dinosaur, holding a bow not unlike Saberial’s.  
“Lomadia, this is Tee the dinosaur. He’s the best archer we have.” Zoeya patted the dinosaur on the arm gently. “Tee, this is Lomadia. She’s a Full Moon, like Martyn, except with owl’s, not plants.” Tee roared.  
“Hi.” Lomadia smiled. First a walrus, now a dinosaur. Could this place get any stranger?  
“Tee can’t speak English.” Saberial added.  
“Most dinosaurs can’t.” Nano said, and they laughed.  
“Right, let’s go make sure the boys haven’t broken anything, or gotten into any major arguments.” Lomadia said, and the five of them headed off towards Lalna, Nilesy, and Rythian’s tents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is just explaining stuff.  
> The next one is a little more... eventful...


	7. Raid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seven months...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of my friends said she'd read my writing so if you are actually reading this, Lydia;  
> Hi, I'm sorry I forced you to read my crap, haha!

A lot can change in seven months.  
People can change, people can grow more than they realise in seven months.  
Nilesy hadn’t changed much, as far as he could tell. He could talk to sea creatures, which he spent a lot of time doing. There was a large lake half a mile from the camp, and he spent a lot of his time there. He could also breath underwater pretty much infinitely, and would probably live at the bottom of the lake if Lomadia didn’t come and find him every evening. He found he could control water currents to his advantage, and his water jets were getting stronger and stronger.  
Lomadia wasn’t sure if her new powers were a help or a hindrance. Sure, she had good night vision, good hearing, and she could float downwards if she jumped from high places (Which she’d found out accidentally while climbing a tree), but her vision in the daytime wasn’t fantastic, and she could hear almost everything almost all of the time. It was annoying, being able to hear everyone’s conversations. Sometimes it was useful, but most of the time, it got in the way.  
Lalna hadn’t changed at all. At least, that was what he’d told people who asked. He’d found he was very good at working out what people were thinking, and guessing things about them they’d never told anyone, and didn’t plan to share. He’d pissed off quite a few people, but most of them forgave him when they realised he didn’t mean any harm. He’d also realised he could move things without touching them. Only small things, but he did enjoy sneakily stealing things like Lomadia’s owl hat or Rythian’s amulet and leaving them outside their tents for them to find. As far as he knew, they suspected nothing (He was wrong).  
Rythian had changed a lot, but he didn’t shout about it. He didn’t want people to know his powers, in case they found a weakness and exploited it. He could blend into the shadows now, making himself practically invisible. He mainly used it to sneak up on Nilesy and Lalna and scare the living daylights out of them, but sometimes he slipped into the marquee and listened to Xephos and Honeydew’s conversations. His teleporting was becoming more and more accurate, and his magic was getting more and more powerful. And his eyes glowed brighter than ever before.  
A lot can happen in seven months.  
People change, people grow.  
And hunters get smarter. They band together and find the source of the people they’re trying to kill.  
They find the main camp.  
They get in.  
They kill.

* * *

 

Nilesy awoke in the early morning. He hated waking up earlier than he had to, and this time was no exception. He heard a commotion from somewhere nearby, but didn’t bother opening his eyes. Parvis had probably done something, which caused Strife to shout at him, which woke everyone else up, which meant they started shouting at Strife and Parvis. Nilesy wasn’t sure what time it was, but it was too early to be up, he knew that much.  
He’d decided he wasn’t going to bother investigating when he heard a blood-curdling scream. A female scream, which sounded far too like Lomadia to be ignored.  
Nilesy sat bolt upright and scrambled out of his tent. He looked around frantically and saw absolute chaos in the camp.  
People were running about like sheep after a wolf had been let loose in their pen. By the looks of the vicious fighting going on in some areas of the camp, a better analogy would be a pack of wolves forced into another wolves’ den. Nilesy saw campers he recognised, Nano, Parvis, Honeydew, even Zoeya fighting for their lives. The hunters had come, and he wasn’t ready. He reached back into his tent and pulled out a cutlass he’d found in the lake a few months earlier. It hadn’t rusted, surprisingly, and had served him well when he went out into the forest with Nano and Lomadia. More screams came from near the marquee. Nilesy whipped around to see the marquee had gone up in flames. He tried to run towards it, but was pulled aside by someone. Nilesy went to slash them with his cutlass on instinct, but stopped when he realized it was Rythian he was about to decapitate.  
“Hey, it’s just me! Don’t go that way, it’s a terrible idea!” He hissed, trying to drag Nilesy towards the forest.  
“What? I can put out the fire! I can be useful for once! Rythian, we can _help_ _them_!” Nilesy hissed angrily, trying to pull away from him. Rythian held tight.  
“We can’t, we’ll be _slaughtered_!” He nearly pulled Nilesy to the floor.  
“And they’ll be slaughtered if we don’t help them! Rythian, just because _you_ don’t give a damn about these people, doesn’t mean I don’t. You can run from this, but I don’t want to. I’m helping them, whether you like it or not.” Nilesy gave one last tug, and Rythian let him go. Nilesy sprinted to the marquee and realised that most of the supply tents around the marquee were burning too. He released jets of water, hoping to save anything he could.  
He hoped no one had been in any of the tents when they’d been set alight.  
His attempts to douse the flames worked on the smaller tents, but the marquee continued to burn. He was so concentrated on extinguishing the flames, he didn’t see the hunter running at him until they’d knocked him to the ground. His cutlass skittered across the ground out of his field of vision. The shock of the impact stopped his stream of water, and he couldn’t re-summon it in time to get the hunter off of him. The hunter was a black-haired, brown eyed man in his mid-thirties, who was about to bring a hatchet down on Nilesy’s head. He vaguely recognised the man. He was the blacksmith from their old village, but Nilesy couldn’t think of a name. Nilesy was surprised he remembered him, it had been seven months since they’d seen each other last. If the blacksmith recognised Nilesy, he didn’t show it in his expression. He just brought the hatchet down on Nilesy’s head.  
Or he was going to, until he was shot in the side with an arrow.  
The blacksmith screamed and fell to the side. Nilesy scrambled backwards and looked to see who had saved him. Saberial already had another arrow notched in her bow. Zoeya was kicking a hunter that had tried to attack Tee. The blacksmith hissed at him and started crawling away. Saberial aimed to shoot him again.  
“ _No_ , leave him. We need to find the others!” Nilesy jumped up and scanned the camp. He saw some people running towards the woods. He was pretty sure he got a glimpse of Nano’s purple skin and Lalna’s lab coat before they disappeared into the trees.  
“Nano said something about meeting at the Rendezvous point if things got really bad here.” Zoeya said, kicking the hunter one last time before jogging over to Saberial and Nilesy.  
“Do either of you know where it is?” He asked, searching around for his cutlass. It had fallen into a light green tent. He picked it up and sheaved it.  
“Yeah, it’s a few miles into the forest. We n-” Saberial couldn’t finish her sentence, as a throwing knife went whizzing past her head. She ducked just in time. Tee roared and fired an arrow at the person who’d thrown it.  
“Need to leave? Yeah, I agree! Let’s get out of here!” Zoeya said, and she started running towards the forest. Tee and Saberial set off after her, but Nilesy took one last frantic look around the camp, just in case there was anyone else nearby who he could help. He felt someone tug on his arm, so he ran too, well aware he hadn’t seen Lomadia yet, and he needed to find her, before it was too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's starting to go down, and trust me, it goes down even further later on...


	8. Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lomadia gets lost, and her eyesight isn't helping...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally longer, and then it started to get out of hand, so I split it up.  
> It's definitely not because I didn't finish writing the second part tonight.  
> I'm in control of my life.

Lomadia usually liked the forest. She’d spent a lot of time in them when she was younger, but right now, she hated it. Her eyesight was failing her, and she had no idea where she or anyone else was. She had taken a throwing knife to the thigh, so she was limping rather pathetically. Fortunately, no one had followed her.  
“Where the hell am I?” Lomadia whispered to no one after a while of limping.  
“The forest, Ma’am.” Hooted an owl from somewhere up in the trees.  
“Thanks, Athena, great help.” Lomadia shot a glare up to where she thought Athena was.  
“Sorry, my lady. Is there anywhere you want to be specifically?” Athena flew down and perched on a low branch.  
“Well, if you could find Lalna, or Rythian, or maybe Nilesy, I’d like to be with them. Can you do that? They should be out here somewhere.” If they’re still alive, Lomadia added privately.  
“Of course, Lady Lomadia.” Athena hooted some orders to the others owls and they flew off.  
“Don’t call me that, I’m just Lomadia.” Lomadia sat down on a log, which hurt her leg. She winced.  
“Of course, Ma’am.” Athena replied, and Lomadia sighed.  
“Sure, whatever. How far away am I from home?” She asked, double checking she still had her knife and the backpack she’d blindly grabbed.  
“Do you mean your village, or the camp you’ve been staying at for seven months and eighteen days?” Athena asked.  
“Why not both? But the village isn’t my home anymore. I’m never going back there. Not now, not ever.” Lomadia confirmed, more for her own benefit than Athena’s.  
“Of course, Ma’am. Well, you’re only a two hour walk away from the camp, and about two and a half days from the village. In your state, I don’t think you’d get close to either.” Athena moved to sit next to Lomadia on the log. She had something clamped in her beak. “Here, I have a bandage. It might help stop the bleeding. I don’t have anything for pain or infection, because I am an owl, and don’t have such resources.”  
“Thanks, Athena. You’re a good owl.” Lomadia stroked Athena’s feathers gently before wrapping the wound on her leg. It didn’t look as bad as it felt, and the knife had tugged itself out while she was running. It was a shame, she could have kept it and used it later.  
“LADY LOMADIA! MISS ATHENA!” Screeched a small owl as it landed clumsily in front of her and Athena.  
“Yes, Hoot?” Lomadia asked wearily.  
“Lady Lomadia, Miss Athena, I found the purple man! He’s not too far from here! Do you want me to go and get him?” Hoot jumped up and down in excitement.  
“You mean Rythian? Good work, Hoot! Okay, I need to attach a note to you first, and I need you to give it too him straight away, even if you have to scratch and peck him to get his attention. After he’s read the note, you lead him straight here, you understand me?” Lomadia asked sternly.  
“Yes, My Lady! I understand, I’ll bring the purple man straight here!” Hoot seemed excited to be given an ‘important mission’. Lomadia wrote a note on the back of the original meeting note from seven months ago, which she still had for some reason, just so Rythian was sure it was her. It read:  
R,  
The owl which may be trying to gouge your eyes out is called Hoot. Follow him, and he’ll bring you to me.  
Be careful,  
-L  
Lomadia attached the note to Hoot, and he flew off in the direction he had come.  
“And now we wait.” Athena said, and Lomadia only nodded in reply.

* * *

“AARRGGHH.” Rythian screamed as the small owl swooped down and scratched at him again. “WHAT DO YOU WANT YOU DAMNED OWL?” The owl hooted in reply. Rythian swatted at him angrily.  
“Did Lomadia send you? I bet she did. Just to screw with me, I’m sure.” Rythian hissed. The owl stopped at the sound of Lomadia’s name. “Oh, so you know her, do you?”  
The owl landed on a nearby branch. It hooted and held out his leg. Rythian noticed the small piece of paper attached to his leg. “A messenger owl? I didn’t expect that one.” Rythian detached the note and read it quickly.  
“Wow Lomadia. Couldn’t come in person, so you sent a minion.” Rythian whispered He looked up at the owl, who was sitting on the branch patiently. “Right then, Hoot, is it? Well, lead the way, little owl.” He said, not sure if the owl could understand him. Hoot seemed to know what he was saying, because he jumped up and started flying through the trees. Rythian followed him, hoping Lomadia was okay.

* * *

"Lomadia? Lomadia!" Rythian called from beyond Lomadia's field of vision. She looked up and scanned what she could see of the tree line frantically. It had been nearly two hours since Hoot had flown off to collect Rythian, according to Athena.  
"Rythian? Rythian, I'm over here!" Lomadia stood up and saw something move out of the corner of her eye. Hoot suddenly crashed into the log she'd been sitting on, hooting wildly.  
"I got the purple man, Lady Lomadia! I scratched him and pecked him until he read the note, and then I brought him here!" Hoot jumped up and down excitedly.  
"Lomadia!" Rythian appeared through the trees and ran to her.  
"Rythian! You're alive!" Lomadia hugged Rythian, and he returned it awkwardly. He had scratches on his face and arms, but Lomadia wasn't sure if they were caused by Hoot, the trees, or the hunters.  
"Of course I'm alive, a couple of dumb hunters aren't going to kill me." He pulled away and patted Hoots head. "I would never have found you without this little owl, although I don't think scratching me was necessary."  
"Are you alone? Have you seen anyone else?" Lomadia whistled quickly, and Hoot and Athena flew away.  
"Yes, I'm alone. The last person I saw was Nilesy after he'd run off to try and put out the marquee." Rythian shrugged.  
"What happened to the marquee?" Lomadia asked. She'd left pretty soon after she got injured on instinct, and she was regretting not staying to help. Although, she wasn’t sure how much help she would be with her eyesight the way it was.  
"The hunters set fire to it and the surrounding supply tents. Nilesy said he might be able to be a hero or something. I tried to get him to come with me, but he wouldn't. I didn’t see Lalna." Rythian suddenly noticed Lomadia's blood stained leg. “Oh my god, are you hurt?”  
“What? Oh, no, I’m fine. It’s just a graze, I can still walk just fine.” She insisted.  
“That’s a lie, Ma’am.” Athena hooted from somewhere up in the trees, but Rythian couldn’t understand her. Despite this, Rythian wasn’t convinced.  
“So, neither of us have any idea where the others are, you’re injured, and we have hunters after us. This is going great.” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “We’re screwed.”  
“Not necessarily. I could climb-” Lomadia began.  
“No, you are not climbing anything while you’re injured. I’m not going to let you.” Rythian said sternly. Lomadia was shocked, as she was usually the one to tell people off when they tried to do stupid things. Not that what she was doing was stupid. It was necessary.  
“I’m not hurt, Rythian! God, you sound like… like… like me!” Lomadia said angrily.  
“You two are going to bring the hunters right to us if you don’t shut up.” Said a voice from behind Rythian. Lomadia couldn’t see who it was, but she recognised the voice.  
It was Smith. Rythian jumped  
“You can’t just sneak up on people like that, you asshole!” He hissed.  
“Maybe if you weren’t shouting so loudly, you might have heard us.” Ross pointed out. Lomadia couldn’t see them, but she was sure Trott would be around somewhere too.  
“We weren’t shouting. And where’s your walrus friend? I thought you three were practically glued together.” Rythian said. He’d moved away from Lomadia, and he’d gone very blurry. She took a few steps towards him, so she could see him clearly, and could just about make out Smith and Ross.  
“We lost him. We were trying to find him, but we only found you two.” Smith said.  
“Well, thank god you did find us. Do you know where the rest of the campers are? We’re completely lost.” Lomadia moved her leg slightly so they couldn’t see the wound. It wasn’t bleeding as much anymore, but it was still hurting her.  
“Everyone who survived the attack are meeting at the rendezvous point. We can get you there, but we’re leaving again straight away. We need to find Trott before the hunters do.” Ross said.  
“Unless they’ve already found him, which is likely.” Rythian said coldly. Lomadia couldn’t see too well, but she was sure Smith had shot Rythian a glare.  
“Whatever, let’s go.” Ross said. He and Smith walked out of Lomadia’s field of vision, but Rythian stayed.  
“Are you okay to walk?” He asked.  
“Of course I am. My leg doesn’t even hurt anymore.” She insisted.  
“I wasn’t talking about your leg; I was talking about your eyes. Can you even see right now?” He asked. Lomadia wanted to make a sarcastic remark, but she was just tired. She’d only told Lalna about her eyesight getting worse, but she assumed Rythian had eavesdropped on their conversation and found out.  
“Things start to get blurry just before where Smith and Ross were standing before, and things go completely black after those tree stumps.” Lomadia gestured to the cluster of tree stumps not far from them. “I’ll be okay if I stay near someone.”  
“Okay, just stay close to me until we get to this rendezvous point. Then Lalna has to look after you.” Rythian joked, and Lomadia laughed.  
“Are you two done? We’ll leave you here if you don’t hurry up!” Ross shouted from somewhere in the trees.  
“Alright, we’re coming. You’re so bloody impatient!” Lomadia yelled, and her and Rythian walked into the trees after them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's getting closer to the Summer Holidays, so I'm getting more time to write. Ain't that great!


	9. Rendezvous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The campers try and meet up at the rendezvous point, with minimal near death experiences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't upload last night because I didn't finish writing it in time.  
> There will be two today instead!

“You said you knew where this place was.” Lalna said as he trailed behind Nano. They were walking through the forest to where Nano insisted a Rendezvous point was. However, they’d been walking for a few hours now, and still hadn’t come across anything, or anyone.  
“Of course I know where it is. It’s not far now.” She insisted for the fourth time. “We didn’t want it to be too close to the camp, for safety reasons.”  
“How come we haven’t seen anyone else?” He asked, kicking a small rock in front of him. It skittered away into another tree.  
“We left before most of the others did; we’re probably well ahead of them by now. Don’t worry, I’m sure Lomadia’s fine.” Nano stopped walking and sat down on a fallen tree. “Man, I’m really tired.”  
“Me too.” Lalna sat next to her and rubbed his feet. “And I’m not only worried about Lom, I’m worried about everyone.”  
“But your especially worried about Lomadia, right? I mean, she might as well be your sister.” She said, picking a loose thread from the hem of her Kimono.  
“No, I already have a sister, and trust me, one is enough.” He said.  
“You do? What’s her name?” Nano asked enthusiastically.  
“Rosie. I’ve not seen her since I left home, though. She’d be sixteen now, I think.” Lalna said sadly. “She helped us escape the execution, and she saved Lomadia’s life.”  
“Do you miss her?” Nano asked. She didn’t have any siblings, but she knew what is was like to leave a family behind.  
“Of course I miss her, but I can’t go back for her, not now. It’s too dangerous for her…” Lalna trailed off, and they sat in silence for a moment.  
Nano broke the silence. “Right, we should probably get moving.” She stood up and scratched her one purple arm. “Do you have any food? I’ve not eaten since last night.”  
“If I did have food, I’d have given you some already. I didn’t have time to grab any before we left; I was caught up in not being murdered.” Lalna said, and they carried on walking.  
Nano stopped again after another half hour and crouched down behind some trees. “Okay, it’s just through there, but we need to check there aren’t any hunters hanging around first. Stay here; don’t move; don’t make a sound.” She whispered. She started to creep towards the Rendezvous Point, but Lalna grabbed her non-purple arm and pulled her back.  
“Uh, no, I’m coming with you. You can’t go on your own, it’s too dangerous! What if the hunters ambush you?” Lalna whispered, crouching down next to her.  
“Lalna, I appreciate the nobility, but I’d rather go alone. If I’m not back in ten minutes, sneak over and check on me. If I’m dead; run and get the others. If I’ve been kidnapped, and you can’t help me; run and get the others. Got it?” She asked. Lalna nodded. “Okay. Ten minutes.”  
Nano crept off into the trees, leaving Lalna alone. He remained crouched, keeping his eyes and ears out for any sign of movement.  
Exactly ten minutes later, he hadn’t seen anything, and Nano hadn’t come back. Lalna was starting to panic, but he put on a brave face and moved slowly and quietly towards where Nano was. He hid behind a large tree and peaked out into the large clearing. There was a camp fire in the centre, logs, probably used as benches, a pile of logs, and a few tents scattered around the outside. Nano was crouched over something at the far end of the camp. There were no signs of anyone else in the area.  
“Nano? Are you okay?” Lalna asked as he walked towards her. Nano straightened up and moved to the side so he could see what she was looking at. It was a corpse, dressed in green, with several arrows in his chest. Only one had hit his heart. It looked like he had been lying there for months.  
“His name is Martyn. He’s a Full Moon, the group have known him for years, but he only starting living at the camp properly two years ago. He went missing a day before you arrived. We… we never found him or his body, and his friend Toby disappeared a few days earlier. We assumed either the hunters got to Toby, and Martyn went to find him and died too, or they just left without telling us. They wouldn’t be the first...” Nano coughed. “We searched for them for weeks, we checked this point numerous times, just in case, but we didn’t find a trace of them anywhere, inside or outside of the forest.”  
“That’s… awful.” Lalna whispered. He glanced around and saw two other bodies lying on the ground nearby. Two of them were dressed like the hunters, one with a diamond sword in his stomach, another with plants growing out of a wound in his chest and covering his entire body. One didn’t look like a hunter, and had an arrow in his chest, just right of heart.  
“He’s Toby, Martyn’s friend.” Nano said. “I wonder what happened to them.”  
“As far as I can tell, the hunters ambushed them, Martyn took a few arrows to the chest, and used his powers to kill this guy.” Lalna gestured to the plant covered hunter “They both died quickly. Toby stabbed the other hunter in the stomach, but not before he got an arrow in his lung. They both bled to death.” He said, kicking one of the hunter’s legs. “How long d’you think they’ve been here?”  
“A month, maybe two, looking at the state of their bodies. I don’t know, I’m terrible at this sort of thing.” Nano said with a shrug.  
“Two months? You said they’ve been missing for seven.” Lalna said, confused.  
“They have. I don’t know, you’re meant to be the smart one.” Nano said. Lalna was about to make a sarcastic comment when they heard footsteps coming up behind them.  
“Nano? Lalna?” They turned around and saw Zoeya, Saberial, Tee, and Nilesy. Zoey ran to Nano and hugged her.  
“Zoey! You’re okay!” Nano cried.  
Nilesy noticed the bodies and gasped. “Whoa. Saber, I thought you said this place was safe!”  
“Don’t worry, they’ve been here for a while. There’s no immediate danger.” Nano said, pulling away from Zoey.  
“Oh my god, that’s Martyn and Toby.” Saberial whispered.  
“Yeah, we’ll have to move them if we want to stay here.” Lalna said. Tee growled suddenly and aimed his bow somewhere into the trees.  
“He’s heard something.” Whispered Zoey. She hid behind a tree and the others joined her. Tee kept his bow trained on the tree line.  
They were all thinking the same thing.  
Please don’t be the hunters…

* * *

“It’s just over there.” Smith said, pointing through the trees. “I’m sure you two can walk a few hundred metres on your own.”  
“Thanks guys. Are you two going to look for Trott right now?” Lomadia asked. “Don’t you want the others to know you’re okay?”  
“You can tell them that for us. We need to find Trott now, he’s probably on his own out there. I bet he’s terrified.” Ross said.  
“As scared as you were when that fox jumped out at us?” Asked Rythian. Lomadia sniggered.  
“What? I was not scared!” Ross insisted.  
“Sure you weren’t.” Smith laughed. “Right, we’re off. And you owe us one, for not leaving you out there to die.”  
“The hell we do!” Lomadia said, but they were already gone. Owing the Hats was a bad idea.  
“Hey, Lomadia, can you hear anything in there?” Asked Rythian.  
“Of course I can.” She said, folding her arms.  
“No, I mean, specifically. Like, are there any people through there?” He asked.  
“Oh, right. Wait a minute, and be quiet.” She said. Lomadia closed her eyes and focused her hearing. She could here two sets of people talking. One of them was Smith and Ross bickering, so she focused on the other conversation.  
_“Whoa. Saber, I thought you said this place was safe!”_ Said a male voice. Lomadia recognised it as Nilesy’s.  
_“Don’t worry, they’ve been here for a while. There’s no immediate danger.”_ A female voice replied. It was Nano.  
_“Oh my god, that’s Martyn and Toby.”_ Whispered another female. Saberial.  
_“Yeah, we’ll have to move them if we want to stay here.”_ A new male voice, Lalna.  
A roar came from the clearing, something even Rythian could hear.  
_“He’s heard something.”_ Came another, quieter voice. Zoey’s. Then there was silence, other than Rythian’s breathing, which was annoyingly loud. Lomadia opened her eyes, the sudden light making her squint.  
“I think it’s just Nano, Saber, Lal, Tee, and Zoey in there.” She said.  
“Yeah, I heard definitely Tee.” Rythian said. “Let’s go.” They both walked into the clearing. An arrow whizzed past Lomadia’s head as they passed the trees, and would probably have killed her if Rythian didn’t pull her out the way. The arrow struck a tree and split it in two.  
“Lom!” Lalna ran out from behind a tent and hugged her. Tee lowered his bow in shame; Zoey apologised for him.  
“Hey, Lal.” Lomadia hugged him back.  
“Have you seen any of the others?” Asked Nano frantically.  
“Only Smith and Ross. They brought us here, and then they left to find Trott. They lost him, apparently.” Rythian said. Lalna pulled away from Lomadia. No one had noticed her wounded leg, or her limp.  
“How do you lose a talking walrus?” Saberial asked. “They’re not exactly small, or quick.”  
“We don’t know. Other than that, we haven’t seen anything.” Lomadia said.  
“Uh, Rythian? What happened to your face?” Asked Nilesy.  
“What?” Rythian asked. He felt his face, and it was covered in scratches. “That bloody owl.” He hissed.  
“You got attacked by an owl _again_?” Zoey asked. “Lomadia, did you send another owl to attack Rythian?”  
“No, I sent out a search owl, and they bought back this guy.” Lomadia gestured to Rythian.  
“After he’d tried to tear my eyes out!” Rythian exclaimed.  
“Well, that’s not important right now. What about Xephos, Honeydew, Strife and Parvis, any of the others?” Asked Nano.  
“Nope, not seen them since we left Main Camp.” Saberial said. Nano sighed.  
“So, what’s the plan now?” Asked Lalna.  
“Stay here, see if anyone else turns up.” Said Nano. “I think we’ll be safe here, at least until the others get here.”  
“What if they don’t get here?” Asked Nilesy.  
“They will.” Saberial said. “We’ve fought off things twice as big and ten times as intelligent as the hunters, they’ll be fine.”


	10. Split Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After staying at the Rendezvous point for a little while, Lalna has an idea...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's that second chapter I promised!  
> It's really short; sorry about that!

Smith and Ross came back with Trott three hours later. They were all fine, other than a few scratches from low hanging tree branches. Trott had stayed hidden somewhere in the camp, and then escaped into the forest alone when the hunters had left. He said, as far as he knew, there was no one left alive at the camp.  
“We should go back to Main Camp. We might me able to scavenge some supplies, and see who escaped and who died there.” Lalna said. They had only spent a night in the camp, but they were quickly running out of food and supplies. Lomadia’s leg was getting harder to walk on, but she wasn’t going to tell anyone that. Most people hadn’t even noticed her limp.  
“No.” Nano said firmly. “I’m not allowing it. The hunters are probably waiting for us there, and we can’t afford to be ambushed.”  
“I’m sorry, who put you in charge?” Asked Nilesy.  
“Xephos and Honeydew did. I’m in command in the event that they can’t be.” She said. “And if you hadn’t noticed, they’re not here.”  
“She’s right. We voted for her.” Smith said.  
“Well, just because you’re in charge, doesn’t necessarily mean we have to listen to you.” Lomadia said. “I second what Lalna said.”  
“I… third… what Lalna said.” Nilesy replied.  
“You’re insane.” Trott said.  
“We probably are, but we need supplies desperately.” Zoey said. She nudged Saberial. “Don’t we babe.”  
“What?” Saberial asked, looking up from the baby squirrel that was running along her arms. “Oh, yeah, sure.” Tee roared in agreement.  
“Well, you six can go, but I’m staying put. I agree with Nano, it’s too dangerous.” Rythian said.  
“We think we should stay here a while longer, just incase someone else turns up, don’t we lads?” Asked Smith. Ross and Trott nodded.  
“How about we split up? The people who think we should go back to camp can go, and the people who think we should stay can stay here and guard everything.” Lalna suggested.  
“It’s a majority who want to go, so it’s not like you can stop us.” Lomadia pointed out.  
Nano sighed. “Ugh, _fine_ , you can go, but don’t come crying to me if one of you winds up dead.”  
Lalna, Lomadia, Nilesy, Zoeya, Saberial, and Tee were planning to leave for the camp an hour later. Rythian pulled Lomadia aside while the others were busy.  
“Are you sure you want to go? Is your leg okay now?” He asked.  
“I’m _fine_ , Rythian! Bloody hell, what are you, my mother?” She asked.  
“I seem to be the only responsible one out of the four of us!” He hissed.  
“Look, it’ll be fine! We’ll get some supplies, including something just incase my leg gets infected, which it won’t. Then we’ll see if we can find any bodies, and we’ll come back. It’ll take less than a day.” Lomadia said, though she doubted it would be that easy.  
“Okay, as long as you’re sure…” Rythian said.  
“Of course I’m sure. We have a bow-wielding dinosaur, what could possibly attack us that he can’t take down?” Asked Lomadia. Rythian smiled.  
“Fair enough, just be careful.” He said, patting her on the shoulder.  
“When am I not?” She asked. Rythian raised an eyebrow. “Don’t answer that question.”  
“You ready Lomadia?” Called Nilesy.  
“I’m coming!” She shouted back before jogging off to join the party. Rythian noticed her limp was getting worse, though it was still barely noticeable.  
She was lying, she wasn’t fine.  
But what could he do? If he told someone, they wouldn’t let her go back to Main Camp, and Lomadia would be very angry about it. If he didn’t tell someone, her wound might get infected, and she could die.  
He decided they’d deal with it when she got back, as someone else would definitely notice her limping by then.  
She’d be fine until then, Rythian told himself. She’d be fine.


	11. Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lomadia, Lalna, Zoeya, Saberial and Tee get back to Main Camp.  
> Will they find any bodies?  
> Of course they Will...

“Are we there yet?” Lalna asked. Lomadia rolled her eyes.  
“We’ve only been walking for two hours. We have at least one more to go.” Zoeya said. “And that’s without running into anyone or anything dangerous.”  
“I wonder if there’s anything left at the camp. I mean, the marquee will probably be burnt up, but do you think the hunters would take everything that was left, or leave it?” Asked Nilesy.  
“I guess we’ll find out when we get there.” Saberial replied. Tee nodded in agreement.  
After another hour and a half of walking, they arrived at the main camp. It was completely wrecked. Most of the tents were ripped to shreds, and the ones that weren’t had collapsed in on themselves. The marquee was practically nonexistent; the fire had burnt it to a crisp.  
“What was that about finding supplies?” Lomadia asked.  
“The supply tents look okay.” Nilesy said in a desperate attempt to be positive.  
“Well, we need to try and find the bodies, if there are any.” Zoey said.  
“There will be.” Lalna replied.  
“You could at least try and be a little optimistic.” Saberial said.  
“Being a pessimist is easier, because I’m either right or pleasantly surprised.” Lalna said. “I’m usually right.” He added  
“Well, either way, we need to check.” Zoeya said.  
“Can you hear anything, Lom?” Asked Nilesy. Lomadia nodded. “Everyone, be quiet a minute.”  
Lomadia closed her eyes and trained her hearing, but could hear nothing other than the wind and the others incredibly loud breathing.  
“Nope, I can’t hear anything.” She said.  
Lomadia pulled her osmium sword from its sheath, and checked her knife was still securely up her sleeve. She slowly moved through the tents, checking each one for either bodies, supplies, or hunters trying to ambush them. The others followed suit, checking each tent, ruined or otherwise. Lomadia found a broken diamond sword, some bandages, and a sapphire necklace. She pocketed the bandages and the necklace before continuing with her search for supplies. A few minutes later, Saberial called them over to her. She was searching through the remnants of the marquee. Nilesy and Lomadia came over, but Lalna, Zoey and Tee were too far away to hear her.  
“What have you found?” Nilesy asked.  
“Nothing interesting, but I need help moving this.” Saberial said. One of the marquees supports had survived most of the fire, judging by the fact it was still covered in cloth, but had collapsed inwards and appeared to be covering something big.  
“Where do you want to move it to?” Lomadia asked, examining the support. It was made of metal, and would definitely take at least three people to lift it.  
“Just over there.” Saberial indicated to a spot clear of tents and debris. “We just need to see what’s under it.” Nilesy grabbed one end of the support, Saberial picked up the middle, and Lomadia got the other end. It was lighter than Lomadia had first thought, but she still put most of her weight on her uninjured leg. She was going to redress her wound after she’d helped Saberial move the support, because she was worried if the wound started bleeding again, the blood would stain through her leggings, and someone would notice. Not that her leg would start bleeding. It was fine. It was healing.  
Once they’d moved the support, they saw what it was covering. There were five corpses, three were hunters of varying ages, the youngest seemed to be in his early twenties, the oldest was in her late fifties. The female hunter looked liked she’d been stabbed to death, one of the male hunters was covered in burns, and the other’s head had been caved in. The other two bodies were Strife, and Parvis. Strife had a stone sword in his chest, and Parvis had an iron axe in his back.  
“Oh god.” Lomadia whispered, putting her hand over her mouth. She realised she was shaking.  
“Zoey? Tee? Lalna? Come here a minute.” Saberial shouted as loud as she could. They heard her this time. They jogged over and saw the bodies.  
“Oh gosh, what do you think happened?” Asked Zoey.  
“I think they all got trapped in the marquee when it was set on fire. Strife bashed one of the hunter’s heads in, then this one caught him off-guard and stabbed him in the chest. Parvis stabbed the girl repeatedly, the burnt guy axed him, and then burnt to death.” Lalna said.  
“That doesn’t make much sense.” Nilesy said. “How did the hunter burn to death, yet everyone else and this part of the marquee is untouched by the fire?”  
“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter, they’re dead either way.” Lalna said. He walked back to where he had been searching without another word.  
“He is so insensitive.” Saberial said once Lalna was out of earshot.  
“He’s just upset because he was wrong. He’ll get over it.” Zoey whistled to Tee, and they left.  
“Well, I guess I should get back to it as well. See you later, Lom, Saber.” Nilesy nodded to them both, and walked back to where he’d been searching. Saberial turned to Lomadia.  
“Are you okay? You look really pale, and you’re shivering.” She said, putting a hand on Lomadia’s arm. “Oh my god, you’re freezing!”  
“I’m fine.” Lomadia insisted, pulling her arm away. “I’m just hungry, and I didn’t get much sleep last night.” Technically, that wasn’t a lie. She was hungry, and she hadn’t slept much in the last two days. She’d convinced herself that was the reason she felt dizzy when she stood up too quickly, and her legs muscles were starting to ache.  
“If you insist.” Saberial said with a shrug. Lomadia walked off, trying to hide her limp the best she could. When she was back to where she’d been searching, she hid behind a tent and redressed her leg. It looked a lot worse than it had when she’d last looked at it. The skin around it had turned red, and one of her veins had gone red too. She wrapped the wound quickly and carried on searching. She didn’t find much else, as most of the tents she was searching had been ransacked.  
In the two hours they were there, they found enough food to feed them for a week or two, plenty of bandages, a couple of undamaged tents, some spare clothes and boots, a few swords, a bow, and a quiver of arrows between them. They also found the body of Daltos, and a few more dead hunters, including the one that had attacked Nilesy. They ate, packed everything up, and started back towards the Rendezvous point. Lomadia felt much better after she’d eaten, but her leg still ached and the dizziness hadn’t quite subsided.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Stop killing the people we like!"  
> Make me.


	12. Stay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nano, Ross, Smith, Trott, and Rythian remain at the Rendezvous Point

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another short one, I swear the next one is longer!

“They’re going to get themselves killed. I shouldn’t have let them go.” Nano said anxiously. “No one else has come back, and I still haven’t found my necklace!”  
“They’ll be fine; they’ve only been gone for what, three hours? It’s not like they’re all very likely to screw something up.” Trott said.  
“Yeah, only Nilesy and Lalna are that irresponsible.” Smith said. Ross sniggered. Rythian shot a blast of magic at Smith’s feet, and he fell over backwards with a squeak.  
“Don’t talk shit about my friends.” Rythian said. “You won’t live to regret it.” Smith glared at Rythian as Ross helped him up. Nano was trying to stifle a laugh.  
“Alright ladies, calm down.” She said. “What do they expect us to do until they get back? Sit and wait for the hunters to kill us?”  
“Well, Zoey, Saberial and Tee only really care about each other, same with Lomadia, Nilesy and Lalna. I wouldn’t be surprised if they got the supplies and took off.” Ross said.  
“For what it’s worth, Lomadia and Nilesy wouldn’t leave me behind, and Lalna wouldn’t leave Nano. They don’t care about you three, but I’m sure they’ll come back.” Rythian said.   
“We have to wait here in case Xephos or Honeydew or Strife and Parvis or any of the others come here.” Trott said. “And Rythian’s right, they’ll come back.”  
“Hey! Who the hell are you?” Yelled Smith, pointing his wand to a figure in the trees. Everyone stood up and readied their favoured weapons.   
“Look, I don’t want any trouble, I’m just lost-” Said the figure, who sounded female. She stepped forward with her hands up so they could see her clearly.  
“Are you a hunter? Because you look like a hunter.” Trott said suspiciously.  
“A hunter? No, I’m not with them. I’m just looking for my brother…” The girl said. Something clicked in Rythian’s mind and he lowered his hands.  
“Wait, are you… Rosie Jones?” He asked.  
“Yeah I am. And you’re… Rythian?” She said. Rythian nodded “Do you know where Lalna is?”  
“You know Lalna?” Nano asked warily. “And you know Rythian? Who even are you?”  
“I’m Rosie, Lalna’s sister.” She said.  
“Does Lalna even have a sister?” Ross asked.  
“Yes, he told me about her yesterday. We still don’t trust you, but we’re not going to kill you unless Lalna tells us you’re not his sister, okay?” Nano said. Rosie nodded and slowly lowered her hands. “Rythian, guard her, make sure she doesn’t do anything.”  
“Why me?” Rythian asked. He didn’t mind looking after Rosie, but he wanted a reason.  
“Because you know her. And I told you to.” Nano said firmly. Rosie sat down next to Rythian, and Nano ordered the Hats to be on lookout while she took a nap.  
“How did you find us?” Rythian asked. “It’s been nearly eight months.”  
“I’m not sure. I came into the forest with the hunters because I wanted to find Lal. They said they knew where you might be, so I thought I’d sneak in and find him.” Rosie said. “When I found out they were planning to attack that massive camp a few hours from here, I left. That was over a week ago now.”  
“Didn’t they know you’re related to a Full Moon?” Rythian asked.  
“They didn’t ask any questions; I didn’t give any answers.” Rosie said with a shrug. “I just asked if they thought there were Full Moons at the camp they were planning on attacking, and they said it was certain. I thought even if it wasn’t you, they might know where you were.”  
“They were right. That’s where we were, for over seven months, until your hunter friends tried to kill us all. That was yesterday morning.” Rythian said.  
“Oh my god, really? Is Lalna okay? What about Lomadia, and Nilesy?” Rosie asked frantically.  
“Don’t panic, they’re all fine.” Rythian said quickly. “They’ve gone back to the camp to see if they can find anything useful. They’ll be back soon.”  
“Oh, thank god.” Rosie laughed. “I had to leave the village after you escaped. It was absolute chaos there.”  
“What happened?” Rythian asked.  
“Well, after you left, everyone was freaking out because there were four Full Moons on the loose in the forest. No one knew what to do, and they were terrified of you. Two months later, a band of hunters come by, I think they were tracking a werewolf, and they found out about you guys escaping. They offered to help, for a fee, and because none of us could pay, a bunch of people signed up to help. I was one of them.” Rosie said. “We continued tracking the werewolf, though we never found any definitive proof he exists, and then started searching for you. I don’t know why I signed up, I guess I was think about finding Lal.”  
“Didn’t you get into trouble for helping us escape and stabbing the kid who attacked Lomadia?” Rythian asked. He realised he was being obnoxious with all his questions, but he needed to know what had happened.  
“No, my parents, your parents, and Lomadia’s parents managed to convince them it was Lomadia who’d stabbed him.” Rosie said triumphantly. “I got off scot-free.”  
“My parents helped you out? What about Nilesy’s?” Rythian asked. He never thought his parents would do something like that, not because they didn’t love him, but because he’d never loved them back.  
“I guess they didn’t care. They practically denied they even had a son after you left. It was really sad.” Rosie said. They continued to talk about Main Camp, and when Nano woke up, Rythian introduced her to Rosie.  
Ross, Smith, and Trott kept giving Rosie suspicious looks, but she didn’t care.  
She was here, she was alive, and she was going to get Lalna back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have a suggestion for the sequel of The Young Offenders Grade School? Please tell me, I'd love to hear it!  
> (You can't revive anyone, that's cheating!)


	13. Rosie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zoeya, Saberial, Tee, Lalna, Lomadia, and Nilesy get back without incident, and Lalna reunites with Rosie. Everyones happy  
> It doesn't last long, and soon, their running again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I DIDN'T FORGET TO UPLOAD LAST NIGHT  
> Okay, yes I did, but it's fine!  
> This ones quite long by my standards, so that's compensation, right?

“We’re back, and, unsurprisingly, none of us are dead!” Zoeya called as she skipped into the clearing with Saberial and Tee close behind her. The sun was setting quickly, and it was a few days from the Full Moon.  
“How are you so damn energetic? We’ve done the exact same thing for the exact same amount of time, and I feel like I’m about to collapse in a heap.” Saberial complained as she sat down on a log. She noticed Rosie and cocked her head. “Hey, who are you?”  
“I’m-” Rosie began.  
“Rosie?” Came a voice from the tree line. Lalna was standing with Lomadia and Nilesy behind him, looking equally confused, surprised, and happy.  
“Lal!” She shouted as she ran to him. They hugged as Lomadia laughed.  
“Rosie? What are you doing here?” She asked.  
“Looking for you lot!” She said, pulling away from Lalna and hugging Lomadia instead.  
They all sat down and Rosie retold the story of what had happened after they’d left. They counted up all the supplies they had collected, which was a lot more than they’d expected. The Hats still didn’t trust Rosie, but no one else would listen to their whining. They sat on the other side of the camp, probably plotting something evil. Lomadia was sitting with Zoeya, who didn’t seem tired despite the fact they’d been out in the forest for over eight hours.  
“If you don’t mind me asking, how did you and Saber end up at the Camp? I don’t think you ever told me.” Lomadia said, retying her boot laces, careful to avoid touching her aching leg.  
“Oh, uh, we ran away from home.” Zoeya said evasively.  
“Ran away? Why?” Lomadia asked.  
“Well, we, um… it was just after my sixteenth birthday, and… they were executing someone, I can’t even remember who it was now, because they were different to everyone else. They were born with bright purple eyes, and the village people were terrified of them, so they hung them. We were scared that they’d kill me because I have red hair, so we left. Saberial didn’t have to come with me, but she did.” Zoeya smiled. “I love her for it.”  
“So, a pretty similar situation to me then.” Lomadia said. “How did you meet Tee?”  
“Tee? Oh, we found him alone in the mountains. We agreed to feed him in return for protection.” Zoeya said. “And now he’s my best friend!”  
“That’s awesome.” Lomadia said, and then she sighed. “It’s awful, people like us really don’t deserve all this.”  
“Yeah, it’s really not fair.” Zoeya said. Lomadia put her hand in her jacket pocket and felt something in there. She pulled the bundle out. It was the bandages and the sapphire necklace she’d picked up back at Main Camp.  
“Oh, I’d forgotten about this.” Lomadia said. She threw the bandages into her bag, and studied the necklace carefully. “Have you seen this before?”  
“Oh, that’s Nano’s! She lost it yesterday.” Zoeya said.  
“Really? I’d better give it back to her then.” Lomadia stood up, steadied herself as quickly and subtly as she could, and wandered over to Nano, who was talking to Rosie and Lalna.  
“Oh, hey Lom.” Lalna said, smiling.  
“Hey. Nano, is this your necklace?” Lomadia showed it to her. “I found it back at Main Camp.”  
“Oh my god, it is!” Nano took it off her quickly. “Thanks Lomadia!”  
“No problem.” Lomadia smiled and walked back to Zoeya. Zoeya was smiling too.  
“That necklace means a lot to her, you know.” She said.  
“Does it?” Lomadia asked.  
“Yeah, her mother gave it to her when she left home, I think.” Zoeya suddenly looked concerned. “She… she goes really spacey and weird when she talks about her mother, and starts talking to her even though she’s not there.”  
“That’s… not normal.” Lomadia said, glancing over at Nano quickly, even though she couldn’t see her properly from here. The sudden movement made her head hurt and her ears ring. She put her head in hands and moaned as quietly as she could.  
“Hey, are you alright?” Zoeya asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. Lomadia barely heard her. There were far too many other voices, and she didn’t recognise a few of them. She focused on the unknown voices and listened.  
_“Are you sure they went this way?”_ Asked a male voice.  
_“Of course I’m sure!”_ Hissed a female voice. _“I saw that damned Red-Head and her bow-wielding dinosaur frolicking through here just two hours ago.”_  
“ _What about the others? The purple one, and that girl with the owl hat?”_ Asked a different male voice.  
_“I didn’t see the purple one, but the owl girl was there, with her two Freak friends.”_ The same woman whispered. _“And can you keep your voices down? They might hear us!”_  
How ironic, Lomadia thought. Then she realised what was happening.  
It was the hunters, and they knew where they were.  
Lomadia opened her eyes and looked up. Zoeya looked scared, and Saberial had joined her.  
“Lomadia?” Zoeya asked. “Are you okay?”  
“We have to leave.” Lomadia said quietly. “We have to leave, right now.” She said, louder, so everyone could hear her.  
“What are you on about?” Smith asked.  
“The hunters, I can hear them.” Lomadia said frantically, grabbing her backpack. “They’re coming; we need to get out of here before they find us.”  
“I think we should listen to her, guys.” Rythian said.  
“What? Why? We’re safe here, the hunters have no idea where we are.” Trott insisted.  
“Trott, we should listen to her. I can sense something coming, and it’s not good.” Ross said.  
“If Lom thinks we should go, I’m going with her.” Lalna said.  
“I do think we should go, and I think we should go _right_ _now_.” Lomadia said. “Nano, is there anywhere safe North of here?”  
“Uh, there’s the mountain range, but that’s practically uncharted territory.” Nano said. “We have no clue what’s up there over than caves and the odd troll. But we don’t need to go up there, we’re fine here.”  
“We can’t just leave! We’re safe here, and Xephos and Honeydew aren’t accounted for, neither are half of the campers!” Nilesy exclaimed. Rosie nodded.  
“I checked before I left, they don’t know about any other camps or anything.” She said.  
“Could they have followed us back?” Saberial asked. Tee shook his head.  
“Tee’s right, we would have heard or seen something.” Zoey said.  
“Why are we arguing about this? I said we need to leave; why aren’t you listening to me?” Lomadia cried.  
“I’m listening to you.” Rythian stood up and grabbed his backpack. “We’re going up to the mountains. Anyone who wants to come can, but don’t come crying to me when one of you winds up dead.”  
“You can’t say that, that’s my thing!” Nano exclaimed. Lalna, Ross, Zoeya and Saberial stood up as well. Trott and Smith glanced at each other, then to Ross, before standing up and joining them. Rosie, Nilesy, Tee and Nano stayed put.  
“Come on, Rosie.” Lalna said. Rosie didn’t move. “Rosie.” He repeated.  
Rosie was about to say something, but was interrupted by shouting from somewhere in the forest. Nano, Nilesy, Tee and Rosie all stood up and stared into the darkened trees. Lights were starting to glow through the forest.  
The hunters were coming.  
Everyone started grabbing their backpacks and packing everything they could. Nano gave some quick directions and a meet-up location incase they got separated. Rosie’s backpack was on the same side of the clearing as the hunters were heading for. She packed up as quickly as she could, but she wasn’t quick enough. A brown-haired male hunter ran through the trees and jumped on her. Rosie managed to grab her knife and stab the guy in the arm. He howled in pain and anger as his fellow hunters burst through the trees. Rosie managed to get the first guy away from her, but was soon surrounded again. The Hats, Zoeya, Saberial and Tee had already taken off. Nilesy took one look at the chaos and left too.  
“ _ROSIE_!” Lalna yelled. He tried to run to her, but Nano grabbed his hand and pulled him back.  
“Leave her!” She yelled, her voice stronger and deeper than it usually was. Lalna looked back at Rosie for a second before sprinting off with Nano, still holding her hand. Lomadia and Rythian nodded to each other and started running. Unfortunately, Lomadia tripped and a searing pain shot up her thigh. She screamed and collapsed. She closed her eyes and leaned against a nearby tree. There was no way she was running now, and she didn’t want to see her death when it came.  
Rythian stopped. Lomadia had fallen and passed out, with the hunters close behind her. He had two options. Leave her, and pretty much guarantee his survival, but leave Lomadia for dead, or go back for her, risking his life and his chance for escape.  
Just this once, he told himself. Just this once, and never again.  
He ran back, pulling Lomadia to her feet as gently but as quickly as he could. Lomadia woke up, and stared at him.  
“Rythian…” She said weakly.  
“Come on, we need to get out of here.” He said, and he teleported a few hundred feet in front of them. He knew they wouldn’t be able to teleport for a couple of minutes, so he tried to drag Lomadia along with him.  
“Rythian, just leave me…” Lomadia insisted weakly.  
“No. We’re getting out of here.” He replied angrily.  
“Why?” She asked. “I thought you didn’t care about anyone.”  
“I don’t.” Rythian said, but then he sighed. “I didn’t have a single friend for the first seventeen years of my life, and now I’ve got one, I’m not leaving her behind.” Lomadia smiled, but passed out again.  
“Oh bloody hell Lomadia.” Rythian hissed. He looked up into the trees and saw two owls sitting on a branch, watching them. Hoot and Athena. “HELP US!” He screamed at them. They watched a few seconds longer before flying away. Rythian looked over his shoulder for a split second. The hunters were less than a hundred feet behind them now. Rythian knew there was no point in trying to escape, but that didn’t stop him. If he was going down, he was going down kicking and screaming.  
Suddenly, a loud screech came from above them. Rythian looked up and saw what must have been a hundred owls swooping over his head and down onto the hunters. Rythian laughed with relief, and realised he was able to teleport again. He teleported another few hundred yards and nearly landed on Zoeya.  
“ _WHOA_!” She yelled. “Not cool, dude!”  
“Zoey? What are you doing here?” Rythian asked, still trying to pull Lomadia along with him.  
“I came back for you two! Honestly, you’d be dead without me!” She said, taking Lomadia’s other arm. The owls were still attacking the hunters, who were barely deflecting the beaks and claws. Rythian and Zoeya were able to get Lomadia to safety, and lose the hunters in the forest. Rythian refused to talk to anyone but Zoeya, because they’d left him and Lomadia to die in the forest. Nilesy apologised, so did Saberial. Zoeya said Tee had said sorry too. Lalna said nothing. Nano and the Hats refused to apologise.  
“I made a decision, and that decision concerned my own safety.” Nano said.  
“And Lalna’s.” Whispered Saberial.  
“We made a decision too. A, fuck no, we are not dealing with that, decision.” Smith said. Trott and Ross nodded.  
“I expected no less from you.” Rythian said coldly.  
Lomadia woke up a few hours later, and forgave everyone for leaving her behind.  
“I was pretty much dead anyway.” She insisted. “And I definitely would be dead if Rythian and Zoey hadn’t come back for me.” Lalna still didn’t speak.  
No one had gone back for Rosie, not even him.


	14. Mountains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group move up into the mountains and make camp.  
> Lomadia talks to the Hats about how they became who they are

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally planned for this to be a sort of filler chapter, and then it was way too short so I changed my mind.  
> Then this happened.  
> I'm sorry.  
> (No I'm not).

They moved up into the mountains before it got too dark for anyone but Lomadia to see properly. Lomadia was really glad it was dark, that she could see properly again. She led the climb up the mountains, seeing as she was the best climber in the group as well. They found a small valley, but big enough to make a camp, between two large mountains, and agreed to set up camp there.  
“How did they find us?” Asked Trott. “You said it yourself, Zoey, you would have heard or seen something if they were following you back from the camp.”  
“I don’t know, Trott. That’s the point, we have no idea what’s going on.” Zoeya said. “I have so many questions, and no one to answer them.”  
“For starters, where’s Xephos and Honeydew? They spent half their time drumming it into us that we had to head to the rendezvous point if something bad happened, and they didn’t turn up.” Nano said.  
“Maybe they’re dead.” Rythian suggested. Everyone glared at him.  
“Thanks Rythian, I feel so much better.” Saberial said sarcastically.  
“Next question, where are the unaccounted campers? We only found Strife, Parvis and Daltos at Camp.” Lomadia said. “In theory, the others are still alive and hiding somewhere in the forest.”  
“Or they’ve been kidnapped by the hunters and/or are dead already.” Lalna said.  
“You could at least try and be a little optimistic.” Smith said.  
“Or I could be bitter and correct.” Lalna said. He got up and crossed to the other side of the camp.  
“Is he normally like this?” Ross asked.  
“Only when he’s upset.” Nano said with a sigh. “Well, seeing as he’s practically useless, someone else needs to come up with a plan.”  
“You do it, you’re in charge, after all.” Lomadia said with a smirk.  
“Yeah, we voted.” Smith said. They all burst out laughing.  
They gave up on the idea of making a plan in favour of food. Lomadia stayed where she was sitting because her leg hurt so much she didn’t want to move it, and the Hats had sat down around her. Lomadia didn’t mind too much, as she had rarely talked to them. She didn’t dislike them, but she definitely didn’t trust them.  
“So, a werewolf, a talking walrus, and whatever the hell Smith is. Sounds like the start of a bad joke.” Lomadia said, taking her plate from Rythian before he walked away to sit with Zoeya and Saberial. Nano and Lalna were sitting together, and Tee and Nilesy were keeping watch.  
“Excuse me, I have a skin condition!” Smith exclaimed, nearly knocking his plate off his lap. Ross rolled his eyes at him.  
“You’re _green_ , Smith!” Lomadia laughed.  
“Seriously though mate, why are you green?” Ross asked.  
“I’ve told you both a million and one times.” Smith said.  
“Do you seriously think we listen to a word you say?” Asked Trott.  
“Good point.” Smith laughed. “Basically, I was cursed because I insulted a wizard.”  
“Insulted a wizard?” Lomadia thought about it for a moment. “They do have funny hats.”  
“That’s what I said!” Smith said, and they all laughed.  
“What about you, Ross? How did the whole werewolf thing happen?” Lomadia asked.  
“I got bitten by a werewolf.” Ross said.  
“No shit.” Trott said.  
“Yeah, but, where? And when?” Lomadia asked. “If you don’t mind me asking.” She added quickly.  
“I was bitten in the plains surrounding my hometown, when I was about twelve or thirteen.” Ross said. “Me and a couple of friends snuck out and camped out there, just for a laugh. We didn’t even notice the Full Moon was out until it was too late. We were attacked, but I was the only one who got bit, as far as I know. Tore right through my shoulder.” Ross pulled down the collar of his t-shirt so Lomadia could see the long-since-healed werewolf bite.  
“Ouch.” Lomadia said quietly. Whatever pain she was feeling in her leg right now, was probably massively outweighed by a werewolf bite felt.  
“Yeah, hurts like a bitch at times.” Ross said. “I was kicked out of my village as soon as the bite was healed enough for me to manage on my own.”  
“Man, that must have sucked.” Lomadia said. “Full Moons suck.”  
“As in the lunar cycle, or the people?” Smith asked.  
“The first one, obviously.” She said. They ate silently for a moment.  
“So, you’re not going to ask about me? Because I’m cool too.” Trott said.  
“You’re a talking walrus, there ain’t much to ask about mate.” Lomadia commented.  
“I’m the greatest talking walrus in the land!” Trott exclaimed.  
“You’re probably the only talking walrus in the land mate.” Smith said.  
“Exactly!” Trott said. “I’m the only one, therefore I am the best one.”  
“And technically the worst.” Ross said.  
“And definitely the most annoying.” Smith added.  
“You two are such _dicks_.” Trott said. Lomadia laughed. Her leg decided now was a good time to feel a stabbing pain around the knife wound. She yelped and clutched at her leg desperately. Bad idea. Tears formed in her eyes, obscuring her vision.  
“Are you alright, Lomadia?” Ross asked.  
“No, I’m not alright.” She hissed. She sighed and wiped her eyes quickly so she could see properly. She looked up to see Ross and Smith still sitting in the same place as they were earlier, and Trott crouched by her side.  
“What happened?” Trott asked, trying to examine her leg. Lomadia tried pulling it away, which only increased the pain further. She yelped again.  
“Let Trott look at it, Lomadia.” Smith said. “He claims to be a medical professional.”  
“I _am_ a medical professional.” Trott insisted. “Give me your leg, let me check it over.”  
“I’m fine.” Lomadia said, before limping off to sit on her own, away from everyone else.  
“You’re not fine.” Said a small voice from above her. Lomadia looked up to see Athena sitting on a ledge higher up the mountain.  
“Shut up.” Lomadia propped herself up against the valley wall. She felt dizzy, sick, everything hurt, and she was confused. Where were they, exactly? Sure, they were in a mountains range, but, why?  
“What are you going to do, make me?” Athena asked. “Forgive me, My Lady, but in your condition, you won’t get very far.”  
“I’m- Am I dying, Athena?” Lomadia asked, shivering, but not with cold.  
“I don’t know, Lady Lomadia. Injuries and infections affect different animals in different ways.” Athena said. “I know Blood Poisoning would kill me or hoot in a matter of hours, but for a human, especially one with your strength, I don’t know. It could take days, weeks, or it could never happen.”  
Lomadia felt tears running down her cheeks. “I can’t tell them.” She whispered.  
“Yes, you can.” Athena flew down and landed on Lomadia’s shoulder. “You have too. They can help you, they can save you.”  
“I’m not worth saving. I never have been.” Lomadia said, leaning her head against the cold, hard stone.  
“Not worth saving, My Lady?” Athena asked. “Where you not worth saving at the execution, when Rosie risked her life, her security, her family and everything she knew to get that village child off of you. He died of his wounds, did she tell you that?”  
“No. No, she just said they’d blamed it on me.” Lomadia whispered, suddenly feeling guilty.  
“Do you know who sent you that note, the day before the execution?” Athena asked. Lomadia shook her head. “It was Rosie. That’s why Rythian thought it was you who sent the note. Your and Rosie’s handwriting is practically identical.”  
“I… I never even thought about it.” Lomadia said.  
“How about Rythian? He keeps coming back for you, doesn’t he?” Athena asked. “He could have just run, when you fell while being chased by the hunters. But he went back for you, risking his life, which is probably the only thing he cares about.”  
“That’s not necessarily true. If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t have come back.” Lomadia said.  
“Exactly. And Zoeya came back too.” Athena said. “She was so scared, scared of what she would find if she went back for you and Rythian. She’s two years older than you, but that doesn’t mean anything. She’s spent four years running, never looking back. This time, she not only looked back, but came back too.”  
“How do you know all of this?” Lomadia asked. The edges of her vision were starting to go black and fuzzy.  
“I’m highly intelligent, and fantastic at eavesdropping.” Athena hooted softly. “And what about Lalna. He’s already lost one sister today; he doesn’t deserve to lose another one.”  
Lomadia sighed weakly. “He doesn’t deserve me. He deserves Nano, and she deserves him.” Lomadia looked over at Nano and Lalna, who were laughing at some joke Lalna had told. “He deserves the world a thousand times over, they all do, and they won’t be able to get anywhere near it if I’m still hanging around.”  
“My Lady-” Athena began.  
“No, Athena. I can’t do this anymore. It’s my fault all of this has happened. If I’d just died like I was supposed to at the execution, Rosie would still be here, Main Camp wouldn’t have been raided, Strife and Parvis and Daltos would all be alive and well.” Lomadia said weakly. “I’ve screwed up so badly, I just can’t do it anymore. I can’t live anymore.”  
“Please, Lomadia…” Athena tried.  
“I’m sorry, Athena.” Lomadia said calmly. “You’ve been such a good owl…” She whispered. She could hear everyone talking, and decided to focus on them for a while.  
_“Dude, that’s not how works!”_ Nano insisted. _“You can’t murder someone because they ate your sandwich without asking!”_  
_“Sure I can, and I will if he does it again!”_ Lalna exclaimed. _“And it’s not murder, it’s justice!”_  
Lomadia smiled and moved on.  
_“Oh, come on! That’s cheating!”_ Zoeya cried.  
_“It’s not!”_ Rythian insisted.  
_“Yes it is! You can’t reuse a word, especially if you’re the one who said it in the first place.”_ Saberial said.  
_“We’re also not allowed names, but you said Xephos when Zoeya said space.”_ Rythian pointed out. _“I let that slide, so you’ll let this slide. It’s fair.”_  
_“That’s not how it works! And you keep pausing, you’re not allowed to hesitate!”_ Saberial exclaimed.  
_“You two take this far too seriously. It’s word association, not a life or death situation.”_ Zoeya giggled.  
Lomadia chuckled, which caused her to cough violently.  
_“Mate, I’d deck you.”_ Smith said.  
_“You’d have to catch me first.”_ Trott replied.  
_“That’s not exactly hard.”_ Smith said.  
Trott gasped dramatically. _“How very rude of you!”_  
_“Alright ladies, lets be real here. I’d take you both down in less than a minute with my bare hands.”_ Ross said immodestly.  
_“I thought you were a wolf, not a bear.”_ Smith said, and the three of them burst out laughing.  
Lomadia smiled and sighed, before falling asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All three of my multi-chapter fics have surpassed 500 hits and I just??? Thank you, that's amazing! But why???


	15. Poisoned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lomadia?

Lomadia wasn’t dead, not yet, but she would be if Athena didn’t get her help. Hoot flew down from the top of the mountain and questioned Athena frantically.  
“Miss Athena? What’s happened to Lady Lomadia? Is she okay?” Hoot landed on Lomadia’s other shoulder and nibbled at her ear gently.  
“Don’t worry, she’s just sleeping. I need you to bring the purple man here again, the same as you did before, can you do that?” Athena asked.  
“Yes, I can do that, I’m good at that.” Hoot replied, and he soared over to Rythian quickly. Hoot dive-bombed him, pecking and scratching at any exposed skin he could get to.  
“WHAT THE _HELL_ , HOOT?” Rythian shouted angrily. Saberial and Zoeya sat and laughed at him.  
“Owls really don’t like you, do they Rythian?” Zoeya giggled. Nano looked over for a second before rolling her eyes and turning back to Lalna.  
“BLOODY- LOMADIA!” Rythian yelled. Hoot stopped scratching when he said Lomadia’s name, and started hooting and jumping on Rythian’s knee.  
This wasn’t like the times back at Main Camp when Lomadia set an owl on someone (mainly Rythian and Nilesy) who annoyed her. This was like the time Hoot tried to get Rythian’s attention because Lomadia was lost and injured. Rythian turned to look at where he thought Lomadia was. She wasn’t with the Hats, so Rythian moved his eyes across the camp. She was sitting against the valley wall with her eyes closed, unmoving, but breathing heavily. Athena was pecking at Lomadia’s face and ears gently, as if trying to get her to wake up.  
“Oh no.” He whispered, before running to Lomadia’s side. “Come on, Lomadia. Wake up.” He shook her gently, but she didn’t stir.  
“What’s going on?” Zoeya called Everyone looked over to see what the commotion was. Rythian pulled up the leg of Lomadia’s leggings to reveal a blood stained bandage. He could see without removing the bandage that she had severe blood poisoning.  
“When did she get that?” Asked Nano, who had moved closer so she could see properly, with Lalna just behind her.  
“When the hunters attacked. I don’t know how it happened, but she insisted she was fine, so I didn’t say anything.” Rythian said.  
“Didn’t say anything? Why the hell _NOT_?” Lalna shouted. “SHE MIGHT DIE BECAUSE OF THIS!”  
“I’M AWARE OF THAT!” Rythian yelled back before turning back to Lomadia. “I should have just told them; I should have said something.”  
“Shouting isn’t helping!” Ross said loudly, over Rythian’s last sentence.  
“Move out of the way, I’ve got this.” Saberial said. Rythian stayed put. “That wasn’t a request, it was a command. Move it.” Rythian still didn’t move, so Saberial pushed him to the side.  
“Hey- Saber!” He said, rubbing the arm he’d landed on.  
“Boo-freaking-hoo.” Saberial said. She cut the bandages from Lomadia’s leg with her own knife, and let out a loud exhale. “How did you let it get this bad, Lomadia?”  
“How bad is it?” Trott asked. He peaked over Nilesy’s shoulder and grimaced. “Oh, that’s bad.”  
“What do we do?” Asked Nilesy. “Blood poisoning has killed people much stronger than her.”  
“I told you, I’ve got this, though this isn’t just blood poisoning. The weapon must have had something much worse on it.” Saberial said.  
“The hunters have poisoned weapons now?” Smith asked. “Can this get _any_ worse?”  
Saberial ignored him. “You might want to look away.” She suggested. She put a hand over Lomadia’s wound and closed her eyes. She muttered something inaudible, and a flash of bright light and a surge of energy blinded everyone and threw them to the ground. The light disappeared, and Saberial started coughing violently, quickly joined by Lomadia. The wound on Lomadia’s leg had sealed up, and the blood poisoning was visibly gone.  
“How on earth did you do that?” Nilesy asked, shocked, as everyone pulled themselves to their feet.  
“I don’t know, don’t complain about it.” Saberial managed when she’d finally stopped coughing. Zoeya held out her hand, and Saberial pulled herself up.  
“Since when could you heal people like that?” Nano asked. “You said you didn’t have any powers.”  
“I’ve said a lot of things to a lot of people.” Saberial said. “I just didn’t want people to take advantage of me, I guess.”  
“Fair enough.” Lalna said. He pulled Saberial into a hug. “Thank you.”  
“Saber, that really hurt.” Lomadia said weakly after her coughing seized.  
“I apologise for saving your damn life!” Saberial laughed, pulling Lomadia to her feet carefully before giving her a quick hug. “It hurt me too. I gave you part of my life force, so I’m going to take a nap before I pass out.” Saberial wandered back to her sleeping mat and laid down.  
Rythian punched Lomadia on the arm before yelling, “DON’T YOU _EVER_ DO THAT AGAIN!”  
“What, set an owl on you, or nearly die?” Lomadia asked. “Because I definitely plan on doing the former, but hopefully not the latter.” Rythian sighed at how casual she was being. He, Lalna and Nilesy hugged Lomadia, telling her off for not saying anything, for letting herself get blood poisoning, etc. Nano and Zoey hugged her and apologised for not noticing that anything was wrong earlier. Trott told her she should have let him look at her leg before going back to sit with Ross and Smith. Lomadia hadn’t forgotten what she’d said to Athena in her delirious state, and she’d meant it.  
She still believed she wasn’t worth saving, but that didn’t mean she had to act like it. She had to pretend she was okay.  
Rythian walked back to where he had been sitting before with Nilesy instead of Zoeya, as she had offered to take up watch for a while. They sat down and Nilesy started talking about some smoke he’d seen rising up from the forest while on watch. Rythian listened, theorising about who it could be, the hunters, other campers, etc. He saw something moving out of the corner of his eye, in a part of the camp where he assumed no one was. He turned, expecting to see one of his friends walking around, but instead saw a tall, completely black figure, with long limbs and bright purple eyes. When it realised Rythian had seen it, the figure teleported away.  
“Nilesy, did you… did you see that?” Rythian asked, pointing to where he’d seen the figure.  
Nilesy looked over Rythian’s shoulder. “See what? There’s nothing there.”  
“Well, it’s not there now, but there was a minute ago, I swear.” Rythian insisted, glancing around the camp, just in case the figure was still around. It wasn’t.  
“I think you need sleep, Rythian; especially if you’re starting to see things.” Nilesy said gently. Rythian just glared at him.  
“There was something there.” Rythian snapped. “I’m not going mad, if that’s what you’re thinking.”  
“Whatever, dude. Just get some sleep before I make you.” Nilesy said, before walking over to Lomadia and dragging her away from Lalna and Nano so she could get some sleep too.  
“G’night Lal, Nano.” Lomadia said with a wave.  
“Night Lom.” Nano and Lalna said together. Once she and Nilesy had left, they carried on their conversation.  
“What was I talking about?” Nano asked.  
“I asked why your skin is purple.” Lalna supplied.  
“Oh right, yeah.” Nano cleared her throat. “What do you know about the Tainted areas and the Flux?”  
“Only what it said in the books I read when I was a kid. The flux is an infection that comes from tainted areas.” Lalna said with a shiver. Flux was always bad news.  
“Well, just over a year ago, I was living in a big town a long way south of here. We always had the threat of The Tainted areas, because there was a large one three days North of us, but we never really thought about it much. We thought we’d be fine.  
“Anyway, there were riots all across the town, some political war that nearly started a civil one. It wasn’t safe for anyone anymore, so about twenty of us started heading North. I left my whole family behind, thinking I’d be safer with my friends. We thought we knew where the Tainted area was, so we were going to turn East a day or so before we reached it. But we were wrong.” Nano said. “The Tainted area had spread so much it was a day and a half closer than we’d expected it to be. We were attacked by a bunch of the Fluxed monsters, and I was one of two people who survived. The other was a teenaged girl named Lydia, who’d been dragged along with her brother and parents. She’d lost all three of them to the Flux Monsters.  
“We managed to get through the Flux Monsters physically unharmed, but once we’d gotten half way through, they stopped attacking us. We were both covered in Flux by then, but she was worse.” Nano took in a shaking breath. “We got to the other edge of the Taint, but Lydia wouldn’t leave with me. She said she had to stay, that Mother was calling her. I told her that her mother was dead, but she wouldn’t listen, and ran back into the taint. I ran the other way, never looking back. The Flux started to spread up my arms and I found my way into the forest, where I wandered around for a few months until Xephos found me.” Nano finished.  
“Can the Flux spread between people, or do you only get it when you go into a Tainted area?” Lalna asked warily.  
“Do you see any other Fluxed people around?” Nano asked. “We have no idea, but as far as we know, I’m all good as long as I stay out of Tainted areas.”  
“That’s good.” Lalna said.  
“Yeah, it is.” Nano agreed. Now she was definitely worried. She’d told Lalna how she became infected before, not long after they’d met, but he’d forgotten. He kept forgetting things, his lab coat, his sword, his goggles, where he was, and Nano was scared.  
What if he forgot everything?  
What if he forgot her?


	16. Full Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mountains seemed like a good idea at the time...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's just pretend the week long hiatus never happened?  
> What week long hiatus HAHAHAHAHA   
> Sorry, school happened.  
> I'm thinking of changing my upload schedule slightly? I don't know, just a thought!

Nano offered to take up watch in place of Tee, around midnight, once everybody else had fallen asleep. He had been on watch for nearly four hours, after running from the hunters for two hours. Tee accepted gratefully, curled up near Saberial with his bow clutched in his right paw (Do dinosaurs have paws? Sure, why not). Nano smiled. He was a very cute dinosaur.  
Nano and Zoeya kept watch for a couple of hours before Zoeya nearly fell asleep standing up. Nano told her to go to bed, and to tell anyone who was still awake to come and help keep watch. Zoeya asked what she was to do if everyone was asleep. Nano told her to kick Rythian until he woke up and agreed. Zoeya giggled and climbed back into the valley, leaving Nano alone. A few minutes later, Nilesy climbed up and sat beside her. He was breathing way harder than he should have been after that small climb up the valley.  
“Nilesy? Weren’t you on watch before Zoey?” Nano asked, confused.  
Nilesy shrugged. “I can’t sleep. My breathing has been really weird recently, and I’m worried about Lomadia and Rythian.”  
“Really? Is your breathing still okay underwater?” Nano asked.  
“Not sure, there isn’t a lot of water around for me to test it on right now.” He gestured around the valley. “I hope so, I like going underwater and hanging out with the fishes.”   
“Is fishes even a word?” She asked.  
“It is now.” Nilesy replied, and Nano laughed.   
“I understand why you’d be worried about Lomadia, with her leg and all, but why are you worried about Rythian?” She asked. As far as she knew, Rythian was fine. Although recently, she didn’t seem to know anything about anyone.  
“I think he’s starting to see things.” Nilesy sighed. “We were talking earlier, and he suddenly asked me if I could see something in the corner of camp. I said no, and he insisted something had been there a few seconds earlier. I thought it was because he needed to sleep, but he seemed pretty adamant that something had been there.”  
“Maybe something was there, and it teleported away, or it can move quickly?” Nano tried. “I met a guy who could move like lightening a few months before I came to the Outsiders Camp. I can’t remember his name though.”  
“I don’t know; the only person we know who can teleport is Rythian himself. Even then, it’s only a few hundred feet at most.” Nilesy said. “Hopefully it was just a one off, we’ve got enough problems without a paranoid Rythian on our hands.”  
“I heard you two were talking about me.” Rythian whispered from behind them. Nano and Nilesy practically jumped out of their skin.  
“Rythian!” Nilesy hissed.  
“What?” He asked, folding his arms.  
“You can’t sneak up on people like that, it’s really rude.” Nano said angrily.  
“So’s talking about someone behind their back, but here we are.” Rythian said coldly.  
“How the hell did you hear us?” Nano asked. “I thought Lomadia was the one with super-hearing.”   
“She is.” Rythian confirmed. “But Lomadia talks in her sleep sometimes, and she recited your conversation word-for-word, including the part where you told Zoey to kick me awake.”   
“Oh.” Nano and Nilesy said together.  
“And I’m not seeing things, there was something there. I’m sure of it.” Rythian insisted. “Both of you, go to bed. I can keep watch on my own.”  
“No you can’t. It’s the Hats turn anyway; you can take over after them.” Nano said sternly. Then she smiled. “You can wake them up if you want to be useful.”  
“And risk being stabbed? No thank you.” Rythian said, before teleporting back into the valley.

* * *

Tee and Lomadia were put on watch around ten o’clock the next morning. The Hats, who had been on watch before them, took a nap while the others tried to create some semblance of a plan.  
“We can’t stay here, it’s not safe.” Nano said. “We can’t risk losing more people.”  
“I say we keep heading North, through the mountains.” Saberial suggested. “It’ll be much harder to track us, and there’s another forest if we keep going. We know how to survive in forests.”  
“If we carry on through the mountains, we won’t be able to move very far in a short amount of time, and there’s more chance of one of us getting hurt.” Nilesy said.  
“We have a healer; it doesn’t matter if one of us gets injured.” Rythian pointed out.  
“A healer with limited power.” Zoeya said.  
“Shouldn’t we wait for the others? We still don’t know where they are, or if they’re alive.” Lalna said. “Xephos, Honeydew, Sips, Sjin, Turps, Strife and Parvis...” He listed them off on his fingers.  
“Lal, we found Strife and Parvis back at Main Camp.” Nano said gently. “They’re both dead.”  
“Oh, yeah…” Lalna said quietly. “I forgot…”  
“Anyway.” Nilesy said with an anxious glance at Lalna. “I think we should get out of the mountains and walk across the plains instead. It’ll be much easier that way.”  
“But we’ll be more susceptible to attack.” Rythian said.  
“But less likely to be ambushed again.” Zoeya said. “How about we have a vote when the Hats wake up.”  
“Ah yes, voting. The bane of my existence.” Nano said with a sigh. Lalna laughed.  
After a bit of persuasion and some bribery, the hats woke up. Then the group decided what they were actually voting on. They were either going to carry on through North the mountains, or head East towards the plains.  
Nano, Rythian, Saberial, Lomadia and Tee wanted to stay in the mountains.  
Nilesy, Zoeya, Lalna, Trott, Smith and Ross wanted to go through the plains.   
Nano, Rythian and Lomadia threatened to leave through the mountains on their own, after Saberial and Tee changed their minds so they could stick with Zoey. Lalna and Nilesy managed to convince them that wasn’t a good idea, that they should come with them through the plains. The Hats changed their minds so much, no one was sure if they really agreed with either plan.  
By the time everyone had finally agreed to go through the plains, which took nearly ten hours, by which time it was getting dark again. People were switching sides, arguing, and generally being stubborn. The only person who still wanted to go through the mountains was Rythian, who continued to insist the plains were a terrible idea.  
In ten hours, they hadn’t put a single person on watch.  
And of course, the hunters took advantage of this.  
They were trying to convince Rythian that they were better off going through the plains, when Ross told them all to be quiet.  
“Everyone shut up a minute. Lomadia, listen.” He said. Lomadia closed her eyes and listened. She could hear breathing, the wind, and someone talking. She concentrated on the voices.  
 _“They were just up there; we’ve not seen any of them for almost ten hours.” A male voice said._  
 _“Are they all up there?”_ A deep female voice asked.  
 _“All the ones who survived the last raid, although we’ve not seen rainbow chick, or purple eyes, or the one in the lab coat.”_ A different male voice asked.  
 _“They’re most likely up there, or nearby.”_ A more nervous female voice said.  
 _“You’d better be right.”_ The deep female voice said.  
“You hear that?” Ross asked. Lomadia opened her eyes and nodded.  
“We need to leave, now.” They said together. They both stood up.  
“Hunters?” Rythian asked. Lomadia nodded. “Alright, I’ll come through the plains with you, on one condition.” He sighed. Everyone stared at him. “No one is allowed to die, including me.”  
“I second that motion.” Nilesy jumped up and pulled Zoeya and Saberial to their feet.   
“Are you alright to run?” Lalna asked Lomadia. She nodded as the Hats and Nano pulled each other up. Everyone was about to start towards the plains when Nilesy stopped, switched directions and ran back towards the hunters.  
“Nilesy? What the _hell_ are you _doing_?” Lomadia yelled.   
Nilesy smirked and shot a small spurt of water from his hands. “Flooding them.”  
“Wait. I have a better idea.” Lalna said with a smile. “Everyone stand at the top of the valley, opposite side of the forest. Give them all you’ve got.”  
Trott asked the question everyone was thinking. “Lalna, what the hell are you on about?”  
“We’re fighting back.” Rythian said.   
“We can’t fight them, they’ll slaughter us!” Saberial cried. “Again!”  
“Not if we slaughter them first. We’ll stand over there.” Ross pointed east.  
“As close to the plains as possible? Thanks guys.” Zoeya said sarcastically.  
“No problem.” Smith said. The Hats started walking towards the wall of the valley when Ross stopped.  
“Guys?” He asked.  
“What?” Trott and Smith stopped as well.  
“What day is it?” Ross asked quietly.  
“Uh, I don’t know, why- oh no.” Trott said as he looked to the horizon. Everyone else looked, and saw the moon rising. But it wasn’t any old moon.  
It was a full moon.  
“Everyone, get out of here.” Ross said, his voice quickly sounding more like a growl. “Now.”  
Zoeya, Saberial and Tee didn’t have to be told twice. They bolted, closely followed by Nano. Lomadia looked between Nilesy, Lalna and Rythian. “You three go, I’ll get these two out of here.”  
“The hell you will. You’ll need at least one more person to drag them along.” Nilesy said.  
“We’re not leaving you.” Lalna said.  
“Lalna, Nilesy, get the others to safety. We’ll catch up with you, hopefully not followed by a _really_ pissed-off werewolf.” Rythian said.  
“You sure?” Lomadia asked.  
“I get a chance to see a real werewolf, of course I’m sure.” Rythian replied. Nilesy nodded before scrambling up the valley wall and taking off after Nano.  
“Remember, you two are more important to us than all three of them.” Lalna whispered. “You both have to come back alive, even if it means killing Ross.”  
“That’s a matter of opinion.” Rythian said quietly. Lomadia nodded.  
“Not to me.” Lalna said, before climbing up the valley wall and calling after Nilesy and Nano.  
Rythian and Lomadia shot each other a quick glance before turning back to the Hats. Ross was now hunched over on the floor, whimpering. Smith and Trott were either side of him, trying to convince him everything would be okay.  
“Just… just leave me.” Ross managed. “I’ll be fine.”  
“There’s about fifty hunters the other side of that hill. If any of them have silver weapons, they’ll destroy you!” Smith said.  
“Don’t be so overdramatic.” Ross laughed weakly. “There’s less than thirty, I can smell them from here.”  
“Trott, Smith, you have to come with us, or Wolf-Ross will destroy us.” Rythian said.  
“No he won’t, it’ll be fine.” Smith insisted. “He wouldn’t hurt me.”  
“Smith, Ross and the wolf aren’t the same entity.” Lomadia said. “The wolf would rip your throat out the second it laid eyes on you. Ross would at least wait until you screwed him over.”  
Trott stood up. “She’s- she’s right, Smith. We- we can’t stay here. Either the hunters will kill us, or… or Wolf-boy will.”  
“NO HE _WON’T_.” Smith pulled Ross into a hug. “He won’t, he won’t.” He repeated.  
Rythian threw his hands up. “Well, you can die for all I care, I’m out of here. Any of you coming?”  
“I’m right behind you.” Trott said. “I’m sorry, Ross.”  
“It’s okay, I’m okay.” Ross insisted with a weak smile.   
“Remember what Lalna said.” Rythian whispered to Lomadia. Lomadia nodded.  
Ross pulled himself away from Smith. “Go.”  
“No!” Smith said as Trott and Rythian exited the valley.  
“Go, before I eat you alive.” Ross said, stronger this time. “It’ll certainly give Lomadia a chance to escape.”  
“Smith, we need to go!” Lomadia grabbed Smith’s arm and started pulling him away. Smith fought back, with little success. Lomadia seemed to be especially strong today, and she somehow got Smith out of the camp before Ross had changed. Ross moved towards the hunters, already feeling the loss of control over his body.  
If he was going down, he was going down fighting.


	17. Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wolf-Ross is far behind them, but there's a new danger up ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has a lot of blood!  
> I couldn't come up with a better title for this chapter, feel free to make a suggestion!

Rythian and Trott had inadvertently split up. The others were long gone, and they followed suit. The plains quickly gave way to fields of tall grass, which was practically impossible to see over, or through, and the darkness didn’t help. Rythian was tall, but not tall enough. He pushed his way through the grass, trying to ignore the anguished screams, which he could hear from somewhere up in the mountains.  
The hunters were having a very bad time. Wolf-Ross was doing his worst, and it didn’t sound pleasant. He hoped Lomadia had gotten out in time.   
Rythian continued to push his way through the grass, listening out for anything that could lead him to his friends, or an enemy, or anyone at all. Eventually, the screaming from the mountains ceased, replaced only by howling, but was soon joined by a girl screaming from somewhere else in the grass. Rythian tried to identify it. It sounded like it was in front of him, meaning it probably wasn’t Lomadia, as she was most likely behind him. That left Nano, Saberial, Zoeya, or someone he didn’t know. He hoped it was the latter.  
Rythian suddenly realised it wasn’t just one girl screaming. It was two, and it was accompanied by a very distant roaring. It wasn’t Nano. It was Zoeya and Saberial, and they were in serious trouble. The roaring was almost certainly Tee.   
Rythian started pushing in the direction of the screaming. At first, he refrained from shouting out, as he didn’t want to draw attention to himself, but when either Zoeya or Saberial stopped screaming, and the other got louder, he called out.  
“Zoey? Saber?” He yelled. He only got screaming in return. “Zoeya! Saberial! Where are you?”  
“RYTHIAN?” Saberial finally answered, sounding panicked and terrified. Rythian worked out exactly where she was, and was at her side a moment later. Saberial was crouching in a patch clear of tall grass. She had stopped screaming, but she was sobbing uncontrollably, and was covered in blood. There were two other people lying unconscious in the clearing. One was dressed similar to a hunter, but Rythian had no idea how they had gotten to the plains in front of him, or even gotten past Wolf-Ross. It didn’t matter. What mattered was Zoeya, who was lying unconscious in a pool of her own crimson blood. She was deathly pale, her hair and clothes were soaked in blood, and her right arm was mangled beyond all recognition.  
“What the hell _happened_?” Rythian asked as he crouched down next to Saberial and examined Zoeya’s arm. She was certainly going to lose the arm, if she survived at all.  
“That hunter- jumped out at her- caught her arm- I killed him- can’t heal her!” Saberial sobbed, almost incoherently.  
“Of course you can heal her, Saber. You cured Lomadia of _blood_ _poisoning_ , one of the worst things you can get. You can heal _anything_.” Rythian insisted. He checked Zoeya’s vitals. Her heart beat was too fast; her breathing too shallow. Rythian took the scarf from around his face and wrapped it around Zoeya’s arm. Saberial stared at him, and Rythian didn’t realise why until she touched his face. The scars ran across the bottom half of his face like veins, glowing purple and burning slightly when Saberial touched them. Rythian flinched, and she pulled her hand away quickly.  
“Sorry.” She murmured before turning back to Zoeya. “I can’t heal her, not until we’re somewhere safe. Neither of us will be able to walk very far, she’s lost way too much blood, and I’ll have lost too much energy.”  
“I’ll carry her, you scout ahead a little and find somewhere we can make camp.” Rythian said.  
Saberial stood up. “What if I find a person?”  
“Kill them.” He said without looking up at her.  
“I meant a person we want to find.” Saberial said with a sigh.  
“Oh, in that case, don’t kill them. Bring them to me.” Rythian picked Zoeya up in his arms and nodded. “You lead the way.”  
“Right, uh... this way.” Saberial started pushing her way through the grass, and Rythian followed close behind her. Zoeya’s arm was bleeding less now, but for what reason?  
After less than ten minutes of walking, the tall grass got shorter and shorter, eventually giving way to plains, and they found themselves near a small cave. Rythian placed Zoeya down gently on the cave floor, and left Saberial alone while she tried to fix Zoeya’s arm, as he didn’t want to be blinded and knocked over in such a confined place.  
Once he’d left the cave and was a few metres away, he felt a blast of energy and saw a bright light behind him. He listened as Saberial started coughing violently, but he didn’t hear Zoeya joining her. Rythian looked back over his shoulder, just in case. Saberial was wrapping up what was left of Zoeya’s right arm, still coughing, with Rythian’s scarf at her side. Zoeya was still unconscious, but she was breathing deeply, and she wasn’t as pale as she had been earlier.  
“Are you okay?” Rythian asked, moving towards her and picking up his scarf and wrapped it around his face. He decided he didn't care that it was covered in blood.   
“She’ll be fine, she’ll wake up in an hour or so, I think.” Saberial managed when she had stopped coughing.  
“That’s not what I asked.” Rythian folded his arms.  
“I’m okay, I’m just tired.” Saberial insisted. “Could you keep watch?”  
“That was the plan. I’ll wake you up if anything important happens.” He smiled, and turned back towards the mouth of the cave. He walked out and sat down in front of the cave, listening for any movement, any sound that could indicate an attack, or a friend in need of help. Rythian decided to list the people he needed to find while he waited.  
Lomadia,  
Nilesy,  
Lalna.  
They were the most important. They were his brothers, his sister, his best friends, the only people he fully trusted. They were the people who he couldn’t carry on without.  
Nano,  
Tee.  
They were next on the list. Zoeya and Saberial would be on that part of the list too, but he’d already found them, they were already safe, whatever ‘safe’ meant. Lalna wouldn’t carry on without Nano, not now, not after knowing her for so long, and loving her so much. No matter how hard they pulled him, or pushed him, or carried him with them, he wouldn’t try, he wouldn’t listen, he wouldn’t truly believe. He’d already lost Rosie, and losing anyone else would tip him over the edge.  
Saberial and Zoeya would struggle without Tee, not in the same way as Lalna, they wouldn’t give up like him. They would try, for the sake of their friends, and each other. Saberial would wonder if she could have healed him, if she could have done something, anything, to save him. Zoeya would tell Saberial it wasn’t her fault, there was nothing they could have done to save their green, bow-wielding dinosaur. But she wouldn’t believe it, not really. Zoeya wouldn’t hate Saberial, she could never do that, not really. But Zoeya would blame herself, blame Saberial, blame Tee, blame anyone but fate.  
Ross,  
Smith,  
Trott.  
The Hats. The terrible trio. The inseparable three. He remembered the way Smith screamed when they tried to get him away from Ross. He remembered how Trott gave in, how they both left, without Smith and Lomadia. He remembered the conversation they’d had after they’d left the valley, after a few minutes of silence. Rythian hadn’t noticed Trott was crying until he spoke.  
“ **I always kept track of the days. I always made sure Smith was away from Ross when he went out into the forest, just in case he tried to stop him again. I always looked after them both, no matter what.”** He said through the tears.  
**“How long have you known them?”** Rythian asked.  
**“One-hundred-and-twenty-four full moons. Well, One-hundred-and-twenty-five now, I guess.”** Trott sighed. **“That’s how I count time now, in full moons, in days until the next one, in days since the last.”**  
**“That’s… actually quite a good way to count, considering your situation.”** Rythian said. **“I count in days, months, and years.”**  
**“I used to. Now the years don’t matter, I don’t even know how old I am. I’m the same age as Smith, and Ross, but they don’t know how old we are either. I don’t think they care. I’m older than you, and your friends, but younger than Nano, I think.”** Trott said.  
**“I’m eighteen.”** Rythian said, quickly counting in his head. **“Eighteen years, three months, and god knows how many days. I lost count after the first raid.”**  
**“I didn’t want to leave them up there. Smith will never leave Ross alone, I always had to distract him, so he wouldn’t go after Ross.”** Trott sniffed. **“Wolf-Ross will kill them both. He can’t tell the difference between a rabbit, a deer, and his best friends during a full moon.”**  
**“Lomadia will get Smith out of there, even if she has to carry him. She’s stronger than she looks, and trust me, she would happily knock him out if she has too.”** Rythian said, and Trott gave a small laugh.  
**“Let’s just hope that she’s not too late.”**  
If one, or two of the Hats died, the ones who were still alive would leave without question, or making a big deal out of them. They wouldn’t give up like Lalna, they wouldn’t blame themselves like Zoeya and Saberial. They would just leave the group, and start out on their own. Where they would go from there, Rythian had no idea. They might last less than a day, or for years longer than the people they’d left, Rythian had no way of knowing.  
But it wouldn’t come to that.  
It could never, _ever_ , come to that, not as long as Rythian was still living and breathing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm changing my schedule!  
> I will now me uploading Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays because good GOD I can't carry on uploading every day!


	18. Hell Yeah!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone finds their way to the cave.  
> Well, almost everyone...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's nearly over!

“Admit it, we’re lost.” Nano said. Lalna was walking in front of her, parting the tall grass with his telekinetic powers.  
“We’re not lost.” Lalna insisted.  
“Then where are we?” She asked with a smile.  
“Well… I- I don’t know.” He admitted. “I’ve not known where we are for a while, at least since Saber and Zoey stopped screaming a little while ago.”  
“By the sounds of it, Rythian is with them, so they’ll be okay.” Nano said, more for her own benefit than Lalna’s. “But we still need to find them.”  
“What do you think happened? To Saber and Zoey, I mean.” Lalna asked.  
“I’m not sure. Maybe they were attacked by the hunters?” She tried.  
“The hunters were too busy with the Wolf, I don’t know how they would have got passed him and got to Zoey and Saber.” He said. “It’s more likely they were attacked by an animal, or a monster of some sort.”  
“Oh, okay.” Nano thought for a moment. “Is it possible that there is more than one group of hunters tracking us?”  
“It’s possible, yes. It’s also very likely. Hunters get paid a lot to go after people like us, and the group that’s been following us since Main Camp was raided were sent from my village, right?” Lalna asked. Nano nodded. “Well, another band of hunters could be sent after the Hats, or Zoey, Saber and Tee, or even you.”  
“That is not good.” Nano said. Lalna nodded. They continued through the grass in silence until the grass began getting shorter and shorter, and they found themselves walking through the plains. Lalna spotted Rythian sitting in front of a small cave, who had blood on his shirt and scarf. They ran over to him.  
“Hey, Rythian!” Nano called. Rythian looked up, shocked at suddenly being pulled out of his train of thought. He jumped up and waved back.  
“Hey, you’re okay!” He said. “Have you seen any of the others?”  
“Seen them? No. Heard them? Yes.” Nano said. “Are Saber and Zoey with you?”  
“Yeah, they’re both asleep. Zoey had a run in with a blood-thirsty hunter, Saberial had to heal her, so I’m letting them both rest.” Rythian glanced into the cave quickly, just to make sure Zoey was still breathing. “I had to carry Zoey here before Saber could heal her, which is why I’m covered in blood.”  
“How long have you been here?” Lalna asked.  
“I’m not sure, less than half an hour, I think.” Rythian guessed.  
“Okay, we’ll keep watch now, you go inside.” Lalna said.  
“I’m fine to carry on keeping watch.” Rythian insisted.  
“It wasn’t a request; it was an order. Get inside.” Nano said firmly. Rythian nodded and ducked into the cave. He sat down next to Zoeya and leaned against the wall of the cave. He didn’t intend to go to sleep until everyone had been found. He didn’t realise Zoeya was awake until she spoke.  
“Alright, Rythian?” She asked quietly. Rythian jumped and stared at her. Her eyes were open, and she was smiling.  
“Uh, yeah, I’m… fine. Are you okay?” He asked. It was a stupid question, of course she wasn’t okay, she could’ve died.  
“I’ve been better, but I’ve been worse.” Zoeya whispered.  
“Been worse? Zoey, you just lost half your arm.” Rythian exclaimed. Zoeya chuckled.  
“Trust me, there are worse things too lose.” She smiled. “I thought you were on watch.”  
“I was, but Lalna and Nano turned up and forced me to come in here.” He said.  
“Ah, right.” Zoeya sighed. “How did we end up here?”  
“What, geographically? We headed North, then East.” Rythian said. Zoeya laughed.  
“You know what I mean.” She said.  
“Well, I got a note which looked suspiciously like Lomadia’s handwriting shoved through my bedroom window two days before I was due to be executed. Although, Lomadia claimed she didn’t send it.” Rythian said.  
“She didn’t, Rosie did.” Zoeya said casually.  
“How the hell do you know that?” Rythian asked. Rosie sent the notes? That was ridiculous, why on earth would she do that?  
“She told me. Well, she accidentally let slip that she had, and I forced more information out of her.” She smiled. “She wanted her brother alive more than anything, and she thought you could help him.”  
“That… makes sense, I think. Why didn’t you mention this earlier?” Rythian asked. It did make sense, Rosie and Lomadia would have almost identical handwriting, as they were taught to write by the same person.  
“The subject never came up.” Zoeya shrugged. “And Rosie told me not to tell anyone.”  
“That’s okay then.” Rythian smiled, and Zoeya closed her eyes again and fell asleep.

* * *

“Of all the people to get stuck out here with, I end up with the talking walrus.” Nilesy sighed.  
“Mate, it’s better than being trapped in a valley with a werewolf.” Trott pointed out.  
“True, but so is falling off a cliff.” Nilesy shot back.  
“If we find a cliff, I’ll be happy to push you off it.” Trott said.  
“Whatever. Where even are we?” Nilesy asked, trying to see over the tall grass.  
“I don’t know, but it sucks.” Trott said. Nilesy nodded.  
“Have we tried shouting yet?” Nilesy asked.  
“No, Zoeya and Saberial did enough of that for all of us.” Trott said. “Maybe we should just keep going this way, and see where we end up.” He pointed in the opposite direction of the one he thought they’d come.  
“That’ll take us back to the mountains, won’t it?” Nilesy asked. “We should go that way.” He pointed in the opposite direction to the one he thought they’d come.  
“No, that’ll definitely take us back to the mountains.” Trott insisted. Suddenly, a howl came from the direction Trott was pointing.  
“You were saying?” Nilesy smirked and started pushing his way through the tall grass. Trott followed him, trying to stop the grass from hitting him in the face after Nilesy had let go of it. After a few minutes of walking, they heard a roar from behind them. It wasn’t a werewolf roar; it was a dinosaur roar. Suddenly, Tee came charging through the grass behind them, roaring frantically. Trott yelped and fell over into the grass.  
“Whoa, calm down, Tee.” Nilesy said, holding his hands out. Tee stopped roaring and started sniffing the air. “What’s wrong, buddy?” Tee pointed towards where Saberial and Zoeya had been screaming from. “Yeah, we heard it too. We think they’re okay though, we think Rythian got to them.”  
“Bloody dinosaur.” Trott said as he pulled himself up. Tee whimpered and started walking in what seemed to be a random direction. “Where is he going?” Trott asked Nilesy. Nilesy shrugged and followed Tee.  
They followed him for about twenty minutes before they came across a place clear of tall grass. On the ground was a dead hunter with a caved in head, who couldn’t have been dead for more than an hour, and a lot of fresh blood. Tee sniffed again, and whimpered.  
“Look, it’s okay, I’m sure they’re both fine.” Nilesy said, more for his own benefit than Tee’s.  
“There’s a blood trail heading that way, maybe we should follow it, see where it leads.” Trott suggested. Nilesy nodded, and the three of them followed the blood trail. The trail started off thick, but slowly got thinner and more difficult to keep track of. Eventually, it was only spots of blood here and there as the grass got shorter. Eventually, the blood stopped completely, but they could see Lalna and Nano sitting in the mouth of a small cave.  
“Hey, Lal, Nano!” Nilesy shouted, remembering the thick trail of fresh blood. “Hey, are you both okay?”  
“Nilesy!” Lalna called back. Nilesy ran to them and hugged Lalna. “I’m okay, as long as you’re okay.”  
“Oh, don’t worry, me, the dinosaur, and the walrus are all fine.” Nilesy gestured to Trott and Tee standing behind him. Tee was already charging into the small cave. Once he saw Saberial and Zoeya lying asleep, with Rythian by their side, he calmed down, and came back outside.  
“Where’s Smith?” Trott asked. “And Lomadia, too. Where are they?”  
“Not here yet. Were they the last ones out of the valley?” Nano asked. Trott nodded. “Then they would logically be the last ones here, right?” Nano smiled, but Trott didn’t return it.  
“Is everyone else here?” Nilesy asked. Tee had sat down in front of the cave with his bow readied in his paw.  
“Except for Ross, yes.” Rythian said, who had suddenly appeared behind Lalna.  
“Jesus Christ Rythian!” Lalna hissed. Another howl came from the mountains.  
“Sorry.” Rythian said. No one was sure if he meant it, other than Trott, who was pretty sure he didn’t. “Zoey is injured, she lost half an arm to a hunter. She’s fine, just sleeping.” Rythian answered the concerned look on Nilesy’s face.  
“Shit, what are we going to do?” Nilesy asked. Nano was about to answer him when Tee shot an arrow in Trott’s direction. The arrow sailed past his head and hit a female zombie, which was shuffling towards them at an alarming speed. More hungry zombies were coming from the plains, along with bow-wielding skeletons and giant spiders. There had to be at least a hundred monsters shuffling towards them from all directions.  
“Jesus wept.” Nano whispered. “How long is it until daylight?”  
“Four hours.” Trott said, looking up at the moon.  
“Well, I think we are officially screwed.” Nilesy said.  
“I think now would be a good time to run.” Rythian said.  
“And where do you suggest we run?” Lalna asked.  
“Away?” Rythian suggested. “Zoey? Saberial? Get up, we’re leaving!”  
“Leaving? Why?” Saberial asked, emerging from the cave. She saw the monsters moving towards them. “Never mind, Zoey!”  
“Yep, let’s get out of here.” Zoeya agreed from behind Saberial. “Before any of you ask, I’m absolutely fine.”  
“Do we fight through, or go around?” Nano asked.  
“Do you see a way around, Nano?” Trott asked.  
“Uh, good point.” She said. “Fighting through it is.”  
“I don’t want to cause any issues, but I don’t have a weapon. Or a right hand.” Zoeya pointed out.  
“Zo, you’re left handed.” Nilesy said. He threw her a spare sword he’d grabbed before they’d left the mountains. “And now you have a sword.”  
“Thank you.” Zoeya smiled.  
“Everyone ready?” Lalna asked.  
“Hell yeah.” They all cried, and they charged towards the monsters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE FIRST CHAPTER OF 'SIXTEEN YEARS LATER', THE SEQUEL TO 'THE YOUNG OFFENDERS GRADE SCHOOL' WILL GO LIVE FRIDAY 22TH JULY  
> STAY TUNED FRIENDS


	19. Alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All good things must come to an end, in more ways than one...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS NEARLY WASN'T UPLOADED ON TIME I'M SORRY  
> I WENT OUTSIDE AND SOCIALISED  
> I REGRET

“Well, at least we’re alive.” Lomadia whispered as she crouched in the tall grass next to Smith. Were they’d been arguing for over an hour.  
“Yeah, being alive is great when all your friends might be dead.” Smith replied quietly.  
“Oh don’t be so bloody pessimistic.” She hissed.  
“Lomadia, we’re hiding from a hunter camp, by a lake neither of us recognise, and we have no idea where any of our friends might be, or if they’re even alive. I’m not being pessimistic; I’m probably right.” He hissed back.  
Lomadia sighed. “Well, Smith, have you tried actually finding our friends?”  
“No, because if we make too much noise, we will be shot.” Smith whispered.  
She sighed again. “Good point. What are we going to do?”  
“I don’t know, but please stop sighing at me, it’s really annoying.” He said quietly.  
“Shut up, stop complaining.” Lomadia hissed. “We need a comprehensive plan.”  
“You’re the one with night vision, what are the hunters doing right now?” Smith asked.  
Lomadia focused her vision on the hunters. Most of them were in their tents, sleeping, most likely. The rest were on guard, although they didn’t seem very alert. There seemed to be only five on watch; the thirty others were asleep.  
“Nothing of note, I don’t think they are paying attention to anything, including us. Got any ideas that won’t get us killed horribly?” Lomadia asked.  
“How about running the fuck away?” Smith suggested.  
“We could try running away, but we might be seen, or heard.” She whispered. “Which way would the others have gone.”  
“The opposite of the one they came.” Smith said sarcastically.  
Lomadia resisted the urge to sigh again. “I swear to god, you make one more remark like that, I will push you into the lake and leave you for the hunters.”  
“I’d like to see you try.” He shot back. “Let’s get away from these hunters, and the mountains, before either the hunters get to us or the Werewolf does.”  
“Alright then, follow me.” Lomadia moved slowly through the grass with Smith close behind her.  
They tried to be as quiet as possible, but Smith was rather clumsy, and Lomadia found the urge to knock him out and carry him on her shoulders instead increasing every time he tripped over or kicked a rock.  
“Sorry, sorry.” He whispered after he’d tripped for the fifth time. Lomadia sighed.  
“Have you always been this clumsy?” She asked.  
“Yes.”  
“Could you be, you know, less clumsy?” Lomadia asked.  
“No.”  
Lomadia sighed again and continued, rolling her eyes at every unnecessary noise Smith made. Fortunately, the hunters didn’t hear them.  
After ten minutes of walking, they came into a small clearing. A freshly dead hunter was lying on the ground in a pool of drying blood. The blood trailed off into the grass.  
“They’re dressed like the hunters we saw by the lake.” Smith said.  
“Yeah, they are. Whose blood d’you think it is?” Lomadia asked.  
“The hunters, judging by the multiple stab wounds.” Smith said.  
“Bloody- Smith, can you please take this seriously?” Lomadia asked.  
“I don’t know the meaning of the word.” Smith pointed to the blood trail leading off into the grass. “Do you think we’ll be killed if we followed that trail?”  
“Depends if what left it is still alive.” Lomadia crouched down and touched the trail. The blood wasn’t warm, but it wasn’t dry either. It was fresh, but had been left at least an hour ago. “Let’s follow it.”  
“Yeah, because that’s a good idea.” Smith rolled his eyes.  
“You suggested it, dickhead.” Lomadia said. “And don’t roll your eyes, that’s my job.”  
“Whatever.” Smith rolled his eyes again. Lomadia sighed.  
They followed the blood trail for a few minutes. Lomadia could hear the roaring of zombies, the clacking of skeletons bones and the hissing of spiders from beyond the grass.  
“Can you see anything?” Smith asked quietly. He couldn’t hear the noises yet, but he could tell from the way Lomadia hesitated something was up.  
“No, I can’t.” She whispered, pushing some grass out of the way. When she let go of it, the grass smacked Smith in the face.  
“Hey- Lomadia!” Smith exclaimed angrily. “I thought you had, like, super-eyesight or something.”  
“I have good night vision, not x-ray vision.” Lomadia shot back. Then she sighed. “Why did I have to end up with you of all people?”  
“You’re the one who didn’t abandon me in the valley.” Smith said. “You had every right, and a few good reasons to.”  
“I could of, but Ross and Trott would never have forgiven me, would they?” Lomadia whispered. The roaring, hissing and clacking of bones got louder as they slowly moved through the grass. Lomadia stopped Smith and told him to be quiet when she heard a new noise join the monsters. Someone was shouting, the clash of swords against bones ringing in Lomadia’s ears.  
“There’s someone fighting out there, I can hear them.” Lomadia whispered.  
“A hunter?” Smith asked. “Or a camper?”  
“I… can’t tell. Gimme a minute, and for god’s sake be quiet.” She closed her eyes and focused her hearing on the shouting. She was almost sure that Smith had stopped breathing.   
_“Nilesy I swear to GOD you drench me one more goddamn time I will feed you to the spiders!”_ A female voice. Nano. Nano and Nilesy were alive!  
_“We have more important issues than your dress getting wet!”_ Followed by the whizzing of an arrow and the crushing of bones. Rythian was alive too!  
_“It’s a Kimono, Rythian!”_ Saberial shouted mockingly. Zoeya laughed, something Lomadia could recognise anywhere, and the sound of a sword hitting flesh made Lomadia flinch.  
A cry for help was followed by a roar and three arrows hitting a spider, which hissed in pain before going silent.  
_“GODDAMNIT!”_ Lalna yelled. _“Thanks Tee!”_ Tee roared again.  
_“Maybe using your mind powers to throw zombies at the spiders isn’t a great idea.”_ Trott shouted. _“Especially considering the fact you nearly just HIT ME WITH ONE!”_  
_“I would be sorry, but I’m really not!”_ Lalna shouted back  
Lomadia counted them off in her head.  
Nilesy,  
Nano,  
Rythian,  
Saberial,  
Zoeya,  
Lalna,  
Tee,  
Trott…  
“Everyone but Ross.” Lomadia laughed. “Come on, let’s go help them!” She ran through the grass and nearly crashed into Zoeya.  
“Zoey! You’re- Oh my god, what happened to your arm?” Lomadia cried when she saw Zoeya’s bloodied stump. Zoeya looked down in confusion.  
“What? Oh- that! Don’t worry about it, I just had a small run in with a hunter. Luckily, I’m left handed, so its all fine!” Zoeya smiled. “Are you okay?”  
“Me and Smith are fine, what’s going on?” Lomadia asked, almost shouting over the growls, groans and hisses of the monsters. Smith had already run over to Trott and was blasting some of the zombies with his Thaumcraft wand.  
“We’re getting the heck out of here, but we have to go through the monster’s first.” Zoeya gestured to the skeletons, spiders, and zombies. “Could you call in Athena and get us some help?”  
“I heard my name.” Athena hooted as she and a parliament of owls swooped down, hooting fondly at Zoeya.  
Lomadia smiled. “You know what to do.”  
Athena hooted to the other owls, and they started dive-bombing the zombies. The owls didn’t get too near the spiders, who could jump up and grab them out of the air with their fangs, or the skeletons, who could shoot them down with ease.  
“Are you alright here?” Lomadia asked. Zoeya nodded as she stabbed a zombie in what was left of its chest. Lomadia left Zoeya and ran over to Lalna.  
“Lal!” She shouted as she sliced open a spider which was about to pounce on him.  
“Lom!” Lalna shouted back as he decapitated a skeleton before it managed to get an arrow in Nilesy. “You’re okay!”  
“Of course I’m okay!” Lomadia kicked a zombie in the back before bringing her sword down onto it’s head. “Where’s Rythian?” She asked. She got her answer when two blasts of bright purple magic flew close to her head and hit a spider who had tried to jump on her. The spider flew over Nilesy’s head and hit a group of skeletons.  
“SORRY!” Rythian yelled before continuing his attack on a group of zombies who were getting a little too close to Tee and Nano, who was completely soaked. He noticed movement closer to him and turned, intending to blast whatever it was into oblivion, but stopped. In front of him was the same creature he’d seen in the valley: tall, completely black, with long limbs and bright purple eyes. Rythian felt paralysed, staring into this… things eyes. They stared for what felt like hours, but was in reality less than a minute, until the creature glanced over Rythian’s shoulder and disappeared. Rythian stood in complete shock for a second.  
What was this creature? Was it following him? Was it real? Had Nilesy been right? Was he going mad?  
Rythian shook himself out of his train of thought. Now wasn’t time to think. Shoot monsters first, ask questions of his mental health later.  
Rythian aimed at zombie and shot a blast of magic at it.  
But nothing happened.  
“What the- for god’s sake.” Rythian hissed, lowering his arm to look at his hand. It didn’t look any different, he wasn’t injured, so what was wrong? He raised his arm to try and fire again-  
An arrow pierced his back between his shoulder blades, presumably shot from an unnoticed skeletons bow. He screamed in pain and collapsed, blacking out as he hit the ground.  
“RYTHIAN!” Nano was the only one who saw the skeleton shooting him through the darkness. She threw her thin purple sword, and it hit the skeleton square in the chest, turning it to a pile of bones. She ran over to Rythian and examined the arrow and the wound it had left. It had gone deep, but not deep enough to hit anything vital. Once they’d pulled the arrow out, Saberial would heal him, and he’d be fine. Most of the owls had died or flown away, and both Nilesy and Lalna had completely given up on their powers, exchanging it for swords.  
“WHAT HAPPENED?” Lomadia asked as she ran over, Lalna and Nilesy just behind her. They saw the arrow in Rythian’s back, Nano’s terrified expression and the dead skeleton with Nano’s sword lying a short distance away.  
“SABER?” Nilesy shouted, visibly out of breath. “ _SABER!_ ” Lalna knelt down, grabbed Nano’s sword and threw it to her.  
“Defend us.” Was his only instruction. Nano nodded and kissed him on the cheek before standing up and running to help Tee fight off a spider. “SABERIAL!”  
Saberial finally noticed their shouting and ran over to them, leaving Zoeya to fend for herself with one arm and a now half broken sword. Smith and Trott saw her distress and ran over to her, killing anything that got in their way.  
“What? What happened?” She asked, before she saw Rythian. She crouched down between Nilesy and Lomadia. “Okay, right, that happened. Lomadia, would you mind pulling the arrow out for me? Carefully.”  
“Sure.” Lomadia wrapped her hand around the arrow shaft. “I’m sorry, buddy.” She whispered, and she pulled the arrow. Rythian screamed and his eyes shot opened.  
“Talk to him, don’t let him move.” Saberial hissed to Nilesy. Fortunately, the arrow had come out whole, meaning he could be healed straight away.  
“Whoa, you’re okay dude, don’t move, Saber is gonna heal you.” Nilesy soothed. Rythian stared at him with wide eyes.  
“You saw it that time, you saw it, standing right in front of me.” Rythian whispered frantically.  
“Saw what? The skeleton?” Nilesy asked.  
“No, no, there was something else, the same thing I saw in the valley.” Rythian whispered.  
“Rythian, you’re seeing things again. Just be quiet, you’re going to be okay, I promise.” Nilesy patted his hand gently. Saberial swore under her breath.  
“What, what’s wrong?” Lalna asked.  
“I can’t- goddamnit, I can’t heal him properly.” Saberial said quietly.  
“Why the hell _not_?” Lomadia asked angrily.  
“Because if I do, _I’LL DIE_!” Saberial yelled. “I heal him, he takes all my life force, I die! I used too much on Zoey’s arm. I’m sorry.”  
“ _GODDAMNIT_ SABERIAL.” Lomadia yelled. Saberial looked like she was on the verge of tears.  
“Lomadia, _calm down_. Could you take some of someone else’s?” Lalna asked.  
“Yes, but it’d hurt, and probably knock one or both of us out.” Saberial said.  
“I’ll do it.” Lomadia said. Lalna and Nilesy opened their mouths to argue, but Lomadia stopped them. “We don’t have time. If you two want to be useful, help the others kill those damned monsters.” They nodded before running off, Lalna to Nano and Tee, Nilesy to Zoeya, Smith and Trott.  
“Give me your hand, and close your eyes.” Saberial said. Lomadia took her hand and closed her eyes. Lomadia felt a searing pain run through her leg, and resisted the urge to scream. First, she heard Saberial coughing and felt her let go of her hand.  
Second, Rythian started coughing too.  
Third, Lomadia opened her eyes, glad the pain from her leg had ceased, but she did feel light-headed and incredibly nauseous.  
But Rythian was okay.  
“Does it feel like that every time you heal someone?” Lomadia asked, fighting the urge to vomit.  
“Every time, but you get used to it.” Saberial coughed.  
“Behind you!” Rythian shouted. Lomadia turned around, sword in hand, and stabbed whatever had been running at her. A spider. Lomadia looked past it once it hit the ground and saw the most wonderful thing she’d seen since the raid.  
The sun was rising.  
The zombies and skeletons were burning; the spiders were running away.  
Ross’ howling had stopped.  
Everyone was alive.  
Lomadia laughed and leaned against Rythian, ignoring the pain still pulsing in her leg.  
She knew what it was, it was the infection. It was coming back, draining her life force had revived it.  
But that wasn’t important right now.  
“Guys, we need to go back to the mountains.” Smith shouted. “We have a werewolf to find!”  
“Can we take a nap first? I feel like crap.” Zoeya yelled as she helped Nilesy up, who had tripped over his own feet.  
“Take a nap, find Ross, get the hell out of here. Sounds like a plan to me!” Nano shouted. Tee roared in agreement.  
“Why are we still shouting?” Lomadia asked loudly. Everyone started laughing.  
For the first time in days, they felt safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Children of the Full Moon is done! Finished! Finally, I can move on!  
> Do you know what that means?  
> 'Sixteen Years Later', the sequel to 'The Young Offenders Grade School'  
> Soon...

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this before I even started TYOGS, so don't yell at me for writing this instead!


End file.
